IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead after US Raid in Syria

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi led jihadists who carried out atrocities which killed thousands.

 

“The fugitive leader of the Islamic State blow himself up during a US military operation in north-west Syria. He ran into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming and detonated his suicide vest after fleeing into a tunnel, chased by US military dogs “ President Donald Trump said speaking from the White House.

Baghdadi came into prominence in 2014, when he announced the creation of a “caliphate’ in areas of Iraq and Syria.

Baghdadi’s death is a major triumph for Mr Trump who was heavily criticised for is decision to pull US troops out of Northern Syria and fights an impeachment enquiry launched by Democrats.

Baghdadi had also dragged three of his children with him, killed himself and all of them by igniting his suicide vest, causing the tunnel to collapse. No US personnel was killed but one of the dogs was seriously injured in the explosion.

“The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him” Mr Trump said.

|the location – the village of Barisha in Idlib province near the Turkish border – was far from where Baghdadi had been thought to be hiding along the Syria-Iraq border.

An undisclosed number of forces targeted the compound using eight helicopters which were met with gunfire, Mr Trump said. The commandos managed to land safely and entered the building by blowing holes in the wall, avoiding the main door which was believed to be booby-trappewd.

“He was a sick and depraved man, and now he is gone. He died like a dog, he died like a coward” Mr Trump said