"Justice has been done." This was confirmed by US President Donald Trump, the death of the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Al Bagdadi: "He died like a dog, in a tunnel, moaning, crying and screaming." Al Baghdadi committed suicide on Saturday night with an explosive vest attached to his body, being surrounded in a tunnel with no exit in an attack by the US special forces, Trump confirmed, today, in a wheel in the press in which he used a language that seemed taken from a Clint Eastwood movie.
It was just after midnight on Saturday when American helicopters flew over the town of Barisha (in the Syrian province of Idlib) and fired at a residential complex. Special forces penetrated, unleashing an exchange of fire. When he was surrounded, Al Bagdadi was immolated. A convoy of Islamic State (IS) vehicles was also attacked from the air. Nine dead are counted, including two of the caliph's wives .
The US president called the terrorist leader "sick and depraved" and summed up the operation flatly: "A brutal murderer has been violently eliminated. He will never again harm any man, woman, or child." Al Baghdadi, who had called himself Caliph, that is, leader of all Muslims, in 2014, blew up his bomb vest instead of giving up. Three of the terrorist's children died as a result of the explosion . Eight helicopters took part in the operation, as well as several planes and drones. The Americans had no casualties. Only one dog of the Special Forces of that country who had followed Al Bagdadi to the tunnel was injured.
From the Situation Room
Trump said the US military operation was "daring" and that the Rangers and the Delta Force - the two units of the Army that carried out the attack - "fulfilled their mission in a big way." The president said that following the attack from the White House "was like watching a movie." However, according to the official calendar of the White House itself, Trump was playing golf in Virginia at 3.30 pm in the afternoon of Washington, when, according to the US Government itself, the attack occurred. The metadata of the photo - which heads this news - released today by the residence of the head of State and the US Government, in which Trump is seen with several advisers and military leaders overseeing the operation, reveal that the image was taken two hours later, at 17.30.
Rarely as today the Napoleonic maxim of "victory has a hundred fathers" became apparent. During the day, Iraq, Kurdish forces and even Turkey, just five kilometers from whose Al Baghdadi border was found, claimed a role in the US operation. Trump congratulated them all. Even to Russia, which he thanked for allowing his troops to fly over ground under his control. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, without detailing his role, said his country "will continue to support anti-terrorism efforts." According to Foreign Policy, citing an American official, Washington informed Turkey in advance to avoid an unwanted clash of forces along its borders, but did not specify the objective due to its fear that the information would be leaked.
The obvious on the ground, judging by the images that were published on social networks throughout the day, is that a severe blow had occurred in Barisha. A large crater, a building made of rubble and at least two bodies scattered on the ground formed the scene. Witnesses, facing the camera, recounted how they had heard a great rumble and fighting, which lasted for at least two hours. Interestingly, in the transcended images, not independently verified, members of the Entity for the Conquest of the Levant (HTS in Arabic acronym), the armed group that controls the area where the Delta Forces assault occurred, could be seen interceding. Cited by local media, HTS also acknowledged having been on the trail of Abu Bakr Bagdadi, a bitter enemy since the breakup between his predecessor group, the Nusra Front, and the IS.
According to EL MUNDO, Islamist sources in Idlib assure, among the victims of the US operation there were high positions of the Guardians of Religion , a jihadist group in turn split from HTS. If so, this closeness could have explained what, according to Trump, were recent attempts by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi to refloat his pseudocaliphate, allying, in this case, with a band eager to mediate in the northwestern Syrian region. The man dies, the terror persists.
"Something much bigger"
The death of the head of the IS is a blow to the terrorist group that has sown destruction in the Middle East and terror in the West with a degree of violence and savagery typical of Nazi Germany and with an extremely effective propaganda system.
Of course, there the president could not help using his rhetorical staff by explaining that the IS assassins "are technically brilliant. You know, they use the Internet probably better than anyone in the world, with the exception of Donald Trump."
As part of that same line of argument, Trump proclaimed that the death of al Baghdadi is "something much bigger" than that of the deceased and leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, killed by the US in 2012 during the term of his predecessor, Barack Obama The president also proclaimed that he had alerted the country about the danger of Bin Laden in a book that was very successful, "I have written 12 books and everything has been very successful." The problem with his prediction about Bin Laden is that "they haven't recognized me, well, it's the same, they never recognize me at all." Trump also celebrated the death of one of Bin Laden's sons, Hamza, who until now had not been confirmed by the US Government. The president explained that Hamza bin Laden, who was trying to rebuild Al Qaeda, in another US attack. The president summed up the importance of Hamza bin Laden with the following words: "He was tall and handsome, like his father, and said bad things, like his father . "
Al Baghdadi, however, does not have the same relevance for Americans as Bin Laden, and not because it was ugly, short and plump, but because the first was the one who ordered the 9/11 attacks, in which 3,000 people died in that country. In May 2012, when Bin Laden was killed in the city of Abbotabad in Pakistan, hundreds of people gathered in front of the White House to celebrate it even though it was night and the next day was a working day. Today there were no signs of jubilation on the streets of the United States.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- Islamic State
- Al Qaeda
- Donald Trump
- Turkey
- Russia
- Germany
- Barack Obama
- U.S
- Iraq
- Pakistan
Turkish offensiveDonald Trump, on the prisoners of the IS who will be released in Syria: "They will escape to Europe. They want to go to their homes"
International US takes custody of 40 fighters of the Islamic State, including two British
Syria Donald Trump's last crush is to control Syria's oil