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Activist video purports to show moment of US raid on al-Baghdadi ISIS compound. Photos show the wreckage left in its wake.
Activist video purports to show moment of US raid on al-Baghdadi ISIS compound. Photos show the wreckage left in its wake.
Ellen Cranley,Ellen CranleyOct 27, 2019, 23:00 IST
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A view from operation area where allegedly Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in, on October 27, 2019 in northwestern Syria in Idlib, Syria .Muhammed Abdullah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Graphic photos and videos show widespread wreckage in the same region of Syria in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid.
President Donald Trump provided vivid detail of the mission on Sunday, the extremist leader died "whimpering and crying and screaming" after detonating a suicide vest in a dead-end tunnel with three of his young children.
After a flurry of helicopter attacks, the group's compound was left in sparse remnants overnight into Sunday and videos and photos of what activists and media on the ground say are piles of rubble and other widespread damage from the raid began to surface online.
Graphic photos and videos show widespread wreckage in the same region of Syria in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid.
President Donald Trump, speaking in a press conference on Sunday, painted a vivid picture of the mission that he said left the extremist leader "whimpering and crying and screaming" as he died after detonating a suicide vest in a dead-end tunnel with three of his young children.
Several US forces targeted the leader's compound, which is situated in the northwestern Syrian village of Barisha near the border with Turkey, from the air, sending off a flurry of blasts overnight Saturday.
Trump said the US had Baghdadi under surveillance for several weeks before forces landed in eight helicopters at the leader's compound and targeted the side of the building, avoiding the main door, which he said they knew was boobytrapped.
"Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my Administration," Trump said in a Sunday press conference. "US Special Operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid into Northwestern Syria to accomplish this mission."
A video posted by Syrian journalist Mohamad Rasheed purports to show airborne strikes igniting Barisha, sparking a bright flash and several other fiery blasts.
Business Insider could not independently confirm what is happening in the footage, but Trump said Sunday Baghdadi set off a blast with a suicide vest he was wearing amid US forces' two-hour mission within the compound.
فيديو لغارات من طائرات حربية مجهولة أدت لإشتعال النيران بين باريشا و حتان بريف إدلب الشمالي بالقرب من الحدود التركية السورية. pic.twitter.com/w83K8DJMKE
The group's compound was left in sparse remnants overnight into Sunday and videos and photos of what activists and media on the ground say are piles of rubble and other widespread damage from the raid.
فيديو يوضح مكان الغارات التي إستهدفت قرية باريشا بريف إدلب الشمالي ليلا برشاشات الطيران المروحي وغارات من طائرات حربية. pic.twitter.com/6tJJ7CmyKE
Trump said that no US personnel were killed, but “a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him” and he would announce the exact number of deaths in the future.
Trump said 11 children were removed from the compound alive and some adults surrendered. He would specify how many survivors there were, but he said there were “more dead than alive."
US forces were in the compound for two hours and seized “highly sensitive material and information” on Isis, Trump said, signaling a major victory amid the president's controversial decision to order US retreat from northern Syria that allowed Turkish forces to attack the Kurds.
