- Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was targeted in a strike by US Special Operations Forces in Syria on Saturday and is dead, according to multiple reports and President Donald Trump.
- The ISIS leader detonated a suicide vest as a US special mission unit carried out a ground raid in the Idlib province in north-west Syria, Trump said in a speech Sunday morning.
- Trump said tests confirmed Baghdadi’s identity.
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Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in a US military strike in Syria yesterday, according to multiple reports citing US defense officials and a speech from President Donald Trump Sunday morning.
An official told the Associated Press that the Islamic State leader had been targeted in the north-west Syrian province of Idlib. Three US officials told ABC News that the ISIS leader is believed to be dead.
Newsweek also reported that the US Defence Department told the White House it had “high confidence” that al-Baghdadi had been killed in the raid after detonating a suicide vest, citing a senior official who was familiar with the investigation.
Trump confirmed those details in his announcement, saying the US forces chased Baghdadi down a tunnel, with three of his children, where he detonated a suicide vest that killed him and his children and caused the tunnel to collapse.
Trump says Baghdadi was identified with biometric testing.
Al-Baghdadi has been in hiding for the last five years, becoming one of the world's most hunted individuals, with the United States has placed a $25 million bounty on his head in 2016.
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