The US Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday it would refrain from publishing videos and photos of the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northern Syria, after President Donald Trump said he might allow the release of a video of the operation.
"We have pictures and videos about the attack on Baghdadi but we refrain from publishing it at the moment," General Mark Milli, chairman of the commission, said at a news conference with Defense Secretary Mark Esper at the Pentagon this evening.
General Milli said that the process of getting rid of the remains of Baghdadi has been completed and conducted appropriately, stressing that it will not be disclosed where the process started.
He confirmed that during the operation were detained two men who were accompanied by al-Baghdadi, and that they are in the possession of US forces in a safe place, said, "We arrested people during the killing of al-Baghdadi, and we got materials and documents for the organization."
The US defense secretary said Baghdadi's death would not eliminate terrorism in the world, "but he sends a message that we are hunting down terrorists wherever they are," stressing that the operation did not kill any of the soldiers involved.
As for the Kurdish forces in Syria, Esber said his country would work to ensure that the SDF had access to resources "they are holding ISIS operatives."
Earlier in the day, President Trump said he might allow the release of part of the video of the raid in which Baghdadi was killed. "We think about it, maybe we will allow it, maybe we will take specific parts of it and publish it," he told reporters before traveling to Chicago.
Trump announced yesterday that Baghdadi was killed in a military operation targeting his hideout in the village of Barisha in the Syrian province of Idlib on Sunday night.