The body of Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea, US officials said, as fresh details surfaced about the US special forces operation that led to his death over the weekend.
Syrian Kurds claimed to be a key source of the intelligence that led US forces to al-Baghdadi after years of tracking the man behind a five-year reign of terror across much of Iraq and Syria.
An unnamed US military dog also became an unlikely hero of the raid, incurring injuries as it chased al-Baghdadi down a dead-end tunnel underneath his hideout, where he blew himself and three children up with a suicide vest.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper praised a nearly 100-strong force that helicoptered to the rural compound in Syria’s Idlib Governorate in a complex mission that required coordination with Russians, Kurds, Turks and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to prevent US aircraft from being fired upon.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley said that no US troops were injured in the operation, despite taking fire when they arrived.
They took two men prisoner and al-Baghdadi’s body was taken for a DNA test that would confirm his identity, he said.
“The disposal of his remains has been done, is complete and was handled appropriately,” Milley said, adding that it was handled “in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”
Another Pentagon official confirmed that al-Baghdadi’s body was put into the sea at an unspecified location, similar to the 2011 sea burial of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after his death in a US special forces raid in Pakistan.
A Kurdish official said that an inside source led US forces to al-Baghdadi’s hideout and made it possible for them to identify him.
“Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA to track Al Baghdadi and monitor him closely,” Polat Can, a senior adviser to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said on Twitter. “Our intelligence source was involved in sending coordinates, directing the airdrop, participating in and making the operation a success until the last minute.”
The source also “brought Al Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself,” he added.
US officials said al-Baghdadi’s death would not end the conflict in Syria, but warned that Washington could not be relied on to bring peace to the region.
“Baghdadi’s death will not rid the world of terrorism or end the ongoing conflict in Syria,” Esper said.
“The security situation in Syria remains complex,” he said. “Acting as a police force out to solve every dispute is not our mission.”
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
RSS