BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The US military carried out a special operation targeting Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northwestern Syria on Saturday amid reports of his death, US officials said. US President Donald Trump is expected to make a "very important statement" at the White House today.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in Idlib, northwest Syria, in a "top-secret" operation approved by US President Donald Trump about a week ago, the Newsweek magazine quoted a US military official and a senior Pentagon official as saying.
According to the magazine, the Joint Operations Command of the US Army sent a team to carry out the operation after receiving intelligence information and after monitoring a compound where Baghdadi is hiding for a period of time.
What happened in the Special Operation?
Newsweek said US helicopters dropped special forces at the compound, and soldiers stormed it. It said there was a brief gunbattle and Baghdadi himself was killed by an explosive vest.
The magazine also reported that my wife Baghdadi was also killed in the operation and that they were wearing explosive vests. The Special Forces collected information from the scene and then detonated it.
CNN news quoted US officials as saying the US military was waiting for DNA and fingerprinting results before issuing official confirmation of Baghdadi's death. The network said the CIA helped locate the leader of ISIS.
The Reuters news agency quoted a US official confirmed the implementation of the operation targeted Baghdadi, but did not disclose any details and did not specify whether the operation was successful.
Assurances from Iran and Iraq
Two Iraqi security sources told Reuters they had received confirmation from inside Syria that the Islamic State leader had been killed.
Two Iranian officials also told Reuters that sources in Syria had informed Iran of Baghdadi's death. One said Syrian officials "informed Iran of Baghdadi's death after they received information from the field."
Trump's statement
Ahead of the news, the US president tweeted on Twitter that "something very big has just happened," without elaborating.
But the White House said in a brief statement that Trump would make a "very important" statement on Sunday morning Washington time (13:00 GMT).
The New York Times said that US Defense Secretary Mark Esper will suddenly participate in Sunday morning programs in the US media.
Baghdadi, a 48-year-old Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai, broke away from al-Qaeda in 2013, two years after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed.
The State Department has offered a $ 25 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Al-Baghdadi appeared publicly when he rose to the pulpit of the Grand Mosque of Nuri in Mosul in 2014, declaring the establishment of a "caliphate state" at the time, as he appeared again about a year ago talking to some of the organization's leaders.