Trump says ISIS leader al-Baghdadi died ‘whimpering and crying and screaming all the way’

Trump said the special forces executed a “daring” nighttime raid and “accomplished their mission in grand style.”

Trump said al-Baghdadi blew himself up after igniting a suicide vest in the tunnel where he fled with his three children.

Trump said US troops had cleared the compound including 11 other children who were not injured.

“The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast,” Trump said, adding that the ISIS madman was “positvely identified.”

“He died like a dog. He died like a coward,” the president said of al-Baghdadi.

Two of his wives were also wearing suicide vests but they were not detonated, Trump said.

“Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS and other terrorist organizations,” the president said.

There were no US casualties in the operation.

Al-Baghdadi, who had a $25 million bounty on his head, was targeted in a raid carried out in Idlib province in northwestern Syria not far from the Turkish border, the president said.

The ISIS madman and his wife detonated suicide vests as the commandos closed in early Sunday in an operation that included helicopters, warplanes and troops on the ground.

Trump tweeted late Saturday that “Something very big just happened,” and White House spokesman Hogan Gidley just before midnight updated the president’s schedule to include a “major statement” at 9 a.m.

News that the terror group’s leader was dead began leaking out following Trump’s posting, and Iraqi state television broadcast footage of what it said was the aftermath of the raid showing rubble strewn across a large area from what appeared to be a demolished house.

Reports said Iraqi intelligence assisted its American counterparts to pinpoint al-Baghdad.

“Our sources from inside Syria have confirmed to the Iraqi intelligence team tasked with pursuing Baghdadi that he has been killed with his personal bodyguard in Idlib (province) after his hiding place was discovered when he tried to get his family out of Idlib towards the Turkish border,” an Iraqi official told Reuters.

“Successful& historical operation due to a joint intelligence work with the United States of America,” Kurdish commander Gen. Mazloum Abdi tweeted.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, reported that helicopters and a warplane carried out an attack on positions north of Idlib on Hurras al-Deen, an al-Qaida-linked group, and that ISIS fighters were hiding nearby.

The assault lasted nearly two hours with the jihadist forces returning fire against the aircraft using heavy weapons.

It said nine people were killed in the operation, but it wasn’t known at the time if al-Baghdadi was among the dead.

Trump took heat from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers for pulling out US troops out of Syria after a phone call on Oct. 6 with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Three days later Erdogan’s military swept into northern Syria to attack Kurdish troops, who had fought alongside American forces against ISIS.

Congressional lawmakers accused Trump of betraying a key ally and raised fears that captured ISIS militants, who were being held in Kurdish-run prisons and camps, could use the chaos to escape.

Al-Baghdadi had led the jihadist group since 2010 and announced during a 2014 speech from the pulpit of Mosul’s Grand Mosque that he would head the caliphate that included large parts of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS fighters continued to take more territory amid mounting reports of mass executions, beheadings, torture and rapes.

They also spread their fanatical ideology to others who carried out attacks around the world in the name of ISIS.

With Post wires

Source: The Washington post