The U.S. Army has confirmed that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed during a raid in Syria approved by President Donald Trump.
The top-secret operation took place in the Syrian province of Idlib, where forces were sent to target Baghdadi’s compound. In the firefight, Baghdada died by detonating his suicide vest among his family members, where two of his wives also died.
The operation was successfully performed by Joint Special Operations Command Delta Team on Saturday and it was allegedly approved nearly a week ago by President Trump.
Baghdadi became the leader of ISIS in 2010 and was formerly involved in Al-Qaeda for several years before that. As leader of the terror cell, he oversaw numerous violent attacks worldwide and countless brutal human rights atrocities while seeking to expand ISIS territory in 2014 and beyond.
According to the Pentagon, Baghdadi’s compound was completely destroyed by an airstrike after the raid and DNA evidence has been taken for testing to further confirm the kill.
Numerous people who travelled into the region from Canada to fight alongside ISIS are being held in prisons throughout Syria for crimes committed with the terror group.
According to government figures 180 Canadians have travelled abroad to fight for ISIS and other extremist Islamist groups, while 60 are already believed to have returned to our country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been non-committal and vague on how his minority government would deal with the returning terrorists. In the past, he’s used euphemisms to describe these terrorists as “foreign travellers”.
Saturday night, Trump referred to the successful operation on his official Twitter account saying. “Something very big has just happened!”
On Sunday morning, Trump spoke from the White House to discuss the details of the mission, and confirmed “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”
It was the top national security priority of my administration,” said Trump, noting that there were no American deaths during this mission.
Trump said al-Baghdadi was chased to the end of a dead end tunnel by dogs, and that he dragged three children with him while fleeing U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Eleven children who were staying at the al-Baghdadi’s compound were rescued, but in his final act, al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and the three children.
Trump said the ISIS leader “spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.”
Trump thanked Russia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the Kurds for helping in the mission.
