Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, died "like a dog and a coward" in a raid by US special forces,
Donald Trump said. The terrorist leader was "whimpering and crying" in a tunnel after dragging three of his children with him, the US president said. As US soldiers closed in Baghdadi, an Iraqi national whose real name was Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai, detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and his children. Mr Trump announced the end of "the world's number one terrorist" during an "impeccable" raid in north-west Syria. The president said: "He died after running into a dead-end tunnel whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. "He had dragged three of his young children with him. They were dragged to certain death. "He was a sick and depraved man and now he's gone. He was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward running and crying." Mr Trump watched the raid from the Situation Room. He said: "It was like watching a movie." The raid, which began after midnight, targeted a compound Baghdadi and his family were thought to have been staying in Barisha village in Idlib province near the
Turkish border. In a video which is thought to have captured the raid helicopters and heavy clashes can be heard. A senior Iraqi official told the Telegraph they obtained information on Baghdadi's whereabouts from members of his inner circle, arrested in
Iraq back in September. "We arrested one of Baghdadi's wives, his nephew and the wife of one of Baghdadi's courier's," the official said. In interviews, the latter gave up information on the leader's whereabouts and the coordinates in Idlib. "He wasn't very mobile" he said, suggesting he had had been in the province for at least the last two months. He confirmed the Iraqi National Intelligence Service shared the information with the US shortly after. Intelligence was reportedly recovered by US special forces soldiers before the compound was then hit by an air strike to prevent the building from becoming a shrine to the terror leader. Something very big has just happened!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2019 Sources indicated that the mission had to be rushed after the US feared it would lose leverage in
Syria after the pullout of its forces last week. The operation involved "deconflicting" with all the other main global players in Syria, including
Russia and
Turkey, which are on different sides of the war. There were no immediate statements made on Isil's official media channels, though typically it does not rush to confirm or deny such high-profile deaths in the group. Experts had speculated that Baghdadi was hiding out with a small number of cadres either in Anbar province in western Iraq or in the vast Badia desert in Homs in central Syria. His presence in Idlib, the last-remaining anti-Assad opposition stronghold, will come as a surprise to some as the province is under the control of rebel groups hostile to Isil. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group aligned with al-Qaeda which is in control of much of the province, regularly carry out raids against Isil and arrests suspected sleeper cells. It is unclear if he was getting protection from the rebels, but a commander with local militia Hurras al-Din group was killed in the raid. "If Baghdadi was indeed in Barisha, it will be interesting to understand how he managed to even get there (through Syria or through Turkey?), and how it was possible for him to stay there," tweeted Michael Horowitz, a
Middle East security analyst with the Le Beck consultancy. Baghdadi, 48, appeared in a video released in April this year by Isil after the group’s territorial defeat, urging supporters to stay strong. In September the group released an audio message said to be from Baghdadi praising the operations of Isil affiliates in other regions. Baghdadi was the most wanted man in the world and subject to a $25 million US State Department reward for information on his whereabouts. He remained on the run for more than five years even as the US-led coalition slowly destroyed Isil and focused on tracking down the leadership. Baghdadi led al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq, taking credit for suicide bombings and other attacks targeting Shia Muslims and moderate Sunnis that left thousands dead over 2010-2013. He then broke with al-Qaeda and announced his own, more aggressive jihadist group named
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that aimed to establish its own deeply conservative Islamic nation, or Caliphate, on territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border. Under his watch, Isil became one of the brutal terrorist outfits in modern history. Fighters came from all over the world to live in the so-called caliphate and inflicted misery on millions of people. They are responsible for the mass rape and enslavement of the Yazidi people, of the beheading of
British,
American and Japanese hostages, and of numerous other war crimes. The removal of Baghdadi from the battlefield will be largely symbolic. The leader's tight security has meant he has been largely unable to communicate with his followers, apart from brief and sporadic audio recordings released on official channels. It will, however, be a major boon for Mr Trump who has faced criticism in recent weeks for his decision to withdraw troops from Syria which paved the way for a Turkish offensive on its Kurdish partners who helped defeat Isil. The terror group has exploited the chaos that followed the retreat, with more than 100 fighters breaking free from prisons in north-east Syria and hundreds of women escaping a detention camp.