Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself after elite US troops cornered him during a raid in northwestern Syria on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said today. A senior US official informed Al-Monitor of Baghdadi’s death before the White House announcement, which came after months of the Pentagon probing near the militant group chief’s suspected hideout in the contested city of Idlib.
Baghdadi, whom the United States had pursued without luck since first deploying American forces to Iraq to roll back the IS caliphate five years ago, detonated a suicide vest under the pressure of the special operations raid launched from Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, Trump said.