Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi detonated suicide vest during US raid in Syria – reports

Notorious Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US military operation in northwest Syria, according to reports. He supposedly detonated a suicide vest during the raid.

It is said that during the US mission – involving choppers, warplanes and drones – American troops engaged in a firefight with the terrorist. At a certain point, al-Baghdadi detonated the vest, multiple outlets, including ABC and Defense One, said citing sources. Later on Saturday, Iraqi state TV announced it will air the footage of the reported raid.

Meanwhile, in an apparent reference to the news, a commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, tweeted about the “successful, historic operation as a result of joint intelligence work with the US.” 

The Pentagon has yet to confirm the rumors, but US President Donald Trump is expected to make a major announcement on Sunday morning. On Saturday night, Trump tweeted that “something very big has just happened!” – fueling speculation that al-Baghdadi had in fact been killed.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) leader has been in hiding for several years. Footage distributed by the terrorist group in April of 2019 purported to show him sitting on the ground with a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to him. Before that, al-Baghdadi was last seen in a video from July 2014, when he spoke at the Great Mosque in Mosul.

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