US President Donald Trump yesterday said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, after a US military raid in northern Syria that left the Islamic State (IS) group’s leader “in utter fear, in total panic and dread” in his final moments.
“Last night the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist to justice,” Trump said in an announcement in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House.
No US personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of al-Baghdadi’s fighters or companions were killed with him, the US president said.
Photo: Reuters
Al-Baghdadi’s body was mutilated after he detonated a suicide vest, but DNA test results provided a positive identification, Trump said.
Al-Baghdadi is the highest-ranking terrorist leader killed or captured since Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 during the administration of then-US president Barack Obama.
The operations by US Special Forces focused on the northwestern province of Idlib, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the matter.
The US confirmed with biometric tests that al-Baghdadi was killed, Fox News reported, citing an unidentified US military official.
The operation was built on CIA planning, a person familiar with the matter said, denying a report from Iraq that intelligence from that country’s government played a role.
Trump did not hesitate to give the order to proceed, the person said.
However, previous reports that al-Baghdadi had been killed proved to be premature.
In April, the IS released a video of a man the group identified as al-Baghdadi, in what would have been his first appearance in five years.
The video was released a month after the militants were driven out of their last stronghold in Syria.
The US operation in Syria appeared to involve cooperation from various forces in the region.
Iraq provided “precise information” to coalition forces that “contributed to reaching the terrorist al-Baghdadi and killing him,” the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, citing an intelligence official it did not identify.
The US also informed Turkey before the raid, with a senior Turkish official saying that al-Baghdadi had arrived at the Idlib location 48 hours before the strike.
The official would not confirm whether Turkey had shared intelligence with the US to facilitate the operation, but pledged continue cooperation with allies in the fight against IS.
The death of al-Baghdadi would be a boost to Trump, who has faced bipartisan criticism after his Oct. 6 announcement that he would pull US forces back ahead of a Turkish military offensive in northern Syria.
The move prompted even Republican supporters of Trump to say he was abandoning Kurdish allies of the US who had helped defeat the IS’ “caliphate.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces, who led the fight against Islamic State on the ground in Syria, said they were involved in the “successful and effective operation,” and would keep working with global partners in the fight against the terror organization, according to a tweet by SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali.
Idlib Province, where the raid was conducted, is not in the region where US forces were based or withdrew from following Trump’s decision.
Instead, it has been a refuge for extremist forces, many with links to al-Qaeda, that had held off efforts by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military to retake the region.
It has increasingly become the focus of Syria’s efforts, backed by Russia, to secure control over the country after more than eight years of civil war.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS