US President Donald Trump has confirmed the death of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a military operation in Syria’s northwest Idlib province.
“Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice,” Trump announced at the White House on Sunday. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”
Trump said the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) died after running into a dead-end tunnel in the village of Barisha and ignited an explosive vest during the raid, killing himself along with three of his children.
“He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” Trump said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward.”
n a national address, the US president described a daring nighttime airborne raid by American special operations forces during which a large number of his companions were killed.
| WATCH: Donald Trump confirms death of ISIL chief al-Baghdadi in US raid |
Al-Baghdadi’s 11 other children were “uninjured”, Trump said, and were left under the care of an unnamed third party.
Speaking from the White House’s Diplomatic Room, the president said that al-Baghdadi spent his last moments in utter fear and claims that he was “whimpering” and died as “a coward, running and crying”.
