ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Killed By US MILITARY!

ISIS leader al-Baghdadi believed to have been killed in a US military raid, sources say

(CNN)ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria on Saturday, according to a senior US defense official and a source with knowledge. The final confirmation is pending while DNA and biometric testing is conducted, both sources tell CNN.

The defense official said it appears that Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest during the raid.
The raid was carried out by special operations commandos, a source familiar with the operation told CNN.
The CIA assisted in locating the ISIS leader, the defense official said. Iraqi forces also gave "important information" in the operation, Maj. Gen. Tahseen al-Khafaji, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Joint Operations told CNN.


The Kurdish-lead Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) tweeted that there was a "successful" joint operation with the US -- but did not specifically name what that operation was or give any further details.
"Successful & historical operation due to joint intelligence work with the United States of America," Mazloum Abdi, SDF General Commander tweeted Sunday.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in this video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014.




Newsweek first reported that Baghdadi was believed to have been killed.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to make a major announcement Sunday at 9 a.m., White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley announced. An administration official tells CNN that the announcement is foreign policy related.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House officials were at the White House late Saturday evening in preparation for an announcement. One official told CNN it would be held in the Diplomatic Reception Room.
Trump stoked speculation when he tweeted Saturday evening "something very big has just happened!"
Feared preacher of hate

Baghdadi, the leader of the terror group, is believed to have been in hiding for the last five years. In April, a video was published by the ISIS media wing al-Furqan that showed a man purporting to be Baghdadi. It was the first time Baghdadi had been seen since July 2014, when he spoke at the Great Mosque in Mosul.
A report in 2015 claimed he was badly wounded -- even bedridden -- by a US strike, yet the Pentagon never confirmed this injury. More reports suggested he was wounded again in 2017, as US-backed and other forces closed in on ISIS' territory in Syria.
In February 2018, several US officials said Baghdadi had been wounded in an airstrike in May 2017 and had to relinquish control of the terror group for up to five months because of his injuries.
Baghdadi became the leader of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2010. In 2013, ISI declared its absorption of an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria and Baghdadi said that his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).
Later that year Baghdadi's followers first swept into Raqqa. That began their ambitions in Syria, and led in June 2014 to the establishing of what they called an Islamic "caliphate," never short of ambition, but rarely showing enough sobriety or statehood to last for very long.


They had rules, an army, and briefly a currency, yet just over three years later were reduced to fighting for scraps of Mosul in Iraq and the object of a large offensive against their de facto capital in Raqqa.
ISIS' control of Mosul officially crumbled in July 2017, when Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi declared that troops had recaptured the metropolis.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.

Salaam.

This just in... Currently it is Sunday, October 27th, 2019. President Donald Trump announced it live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIAJc6XPp_4

They are saying that al-Baghdadi blew up his vest and killed his own children are the end. What a sociopath.

Regardless of nationality or personal political beliefs, this is a huge win for everyone! Al-Baghdadi was a true menace to human life, just like Osama Bin Laden. The world is better off without him.

May Allah protect us from terrorists! Ameen.

Yup he was astray indeed, however now that he's dead, let's show him mercy

May Allah forgive him and grant him jannatul firdaus.Ameen

Salaam,

This case did not go to a US court.

I always considered al-Baghdadi and his group Kharijites. They did infinitely more damage to Islam than any colonial / imperial power or authoritarian government could, since their ideology and actions were an attempt to blacken the reputation of the faith and its adherents.

They were bankrolled and funded by Israel, and perhaps unknowingly, the US. These powers didn't even care that this group was vicious and out-of-control, since the objective was to overthrow Assad. Only when things really became dire, and international headlines were being made, did the US begin targeting ISIS. It is a sorry chapter in US history. As for Israel, we have always expected such from them.

Hopefully this sorry chapter in human history is coming to a close

format_quote Originally Posted by anatolian

So America finished its job with him..Sorry but this is how imperial plans work. You first create the monster, then invade the land excusing the monster. When you dont need the monster anymore you kill it. Just as happened to bin-laden..

I'm surprised they didn't send him off to sea as they did bin laden. I mean, it is Islamic protocol after all apparently.

format_quote Originally Posted by Silas

I always considered al-Baghdadi and his group Kharijites. They did infinitely more damage to Islam than any colonial / imperial power or authoritarian government could, since their ideology and actions were an attempt to blacken the reputation of the faith and its adherents.

They were bankrolled and funded by Israel, and perhaps unknowingly, the US. These powers didn't even care that this group was vicious and out-of-control, since the objective was to overthrow Assad. Only when things really became dire, and international headlines were being made, did the US begin targeting ISIS. It is a sorry chapter in US history. As for Israel, we have always expected such from them.

Hopefully this sorry chapter in human history is coming to a close

Unfortunately, there are more chapters to this book. The worst is yet to come.

format_quote Originally Posted by Silas

I always considered al-Baghdadi and his group Kharijites. They did infinitely more damage to Islam than any colonial / imperial power or authoritarian government could, since their ideology and actions were an attempt to blacken the reputation of the faith and its adherents.

They were bankrolled and funded by Israel, and perhaps unknowingly, the US. These powers didn't even care that this group was vicious and out-of-control, since the objective was to overthrow Assad. Only when things really became dire, and international headlines were being made, did the US begin targeting ISIS. It is a sorry chapter in US history. As for Israel, we have always expected such from them.

Hopefully this sorry chapter in human history is coming to a close

Islam continues to remain the fastest growing religion in terms of converts, and that's because Muslims have been even more vocal in disasociating Islam from extremism since ISIS became prominent, so ISIS or any extremist group can never harm Islam.

I do feel bad for Abu Bakr's Al-Baghdadi's children who he blew up along with himself. Islamically, there’s no justification for that.

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi

Days after President Trump announced the death of the self-proclaimed leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during a U.S. special forces operation in northwest Syria on Oct. 26, the terror group has named its new leader: Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraysh

https://time.com/5716061/isis-leader...i-al-quarashi/

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...eader-12052692

Islamic State names Baghdadi successor, vows revenge against US

Late Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is seen in an undated picture released by the US Department of Defense in Washington, US on Oct 30, 2019. (Photo: US Department of Defense)
31 Oct 2019 11:51PM (Updated: 01 Nov 2019 09:00AM)
CAIRO: Islamic State confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Thursday (Oct 31) and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, as it vowed revenge against the US for the killing.

"We mourn you ... commander of the faithful," said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi - presented as the militant group's new spokesman - in an audio statement.
Baghdadi, who led Islamic State since 2014 and was the world's most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday.

US officials confirmed on Monday that Baghdadi's body was buried at sea.

Islamic State also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group's previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.

The statement said Islamic State's legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born chief's death.


"The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed" on a replacement, said the seven-minute message.

Little is known about Hashimi, whose name was seldom mentioned as a possible successor the multiple times that Baghdadi was reported killed in recent years.

"We don't know much about him except that he is the leading judge of Islamic State and he heads the Sharia (Islamic law) committee," said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert on the militant group.

The Islamic State spokesman also issued a stark warning to the United States, whose President Donald Trump announced Baghdadi's death in a televised address from the White House.

"CRAZY OLD MAN"

"He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way," Trump said on Sunday, adding that Baghdadi "died like a dog".

In the new audio message, the new Islamic State spokesman described Trump as "a crazy old man" and warned the US that the group's supporters would avenge Baghdadi's death.

"Do not rejoice America," he warned, "the new chosen one will make you forget the horror you have beholden... and make the achievements of the Baghdadi days taste sweet".

The spokesman also referred to an earlier call by Baghdadi for the thousands of Islamic State fighters held in Syrian and Iraqi prisons to be freed.

Syrian Kurdish forces run prisons in northeastern Syria where they say around 12,000 Islamic State suspects are held.

Most of those prisoners are Iraqi and Syrian but the detainees also include more than 2,000 foreigners who hail from more than 50 different countries.

With aerial and logistical assistance from an international coalition led by the US, Iraqi and Syrian forces have wrested back all the territory lost to Islamic State in 2014.

Fighters from the newly-formed Islamic State group that year swept through much of the Sunni heartland in Iraq and Syria to declare a "caliphate" that further expanded to reach roughly the size of Great Britain.

Years of battles led to the elimination in 2019 of Islamic State's self-declared territorial "caliphate", ending an unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood which saw a well-organised administration mint its own currency, produce school textbooks and levy taxes.

But while that entity collapsed in March in the remote eastern Syrian village of Baghouz, the organisation went underground and reverted to well-honed guerrilla tactics that continue to do damage.

A recent Turkish invasion targeting the Kurdish forces that had fought against Islamic State in Baghouz has wrought havoc in northeastern Syria, whose geopolitical map is being redrawn.

Observers have warned that the power vacuum and confusion may create an opportunity for the group to rebuild and make fresh territorial gains.

Islamic State has a very horizontal structure, analysts say, and the impact of a decapitation strike may be more symbolic than operational, leaving the group's global jihadist brand and efficiency as an insurgency largely intact.

Source: Agencies/aj/de