Finally: US Kills IS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – OpEd

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Donald Trump has announced the Islamic State leader, al-Baghdadi, has been killed in a raid by US special forces on his Syrian safe house, he detonated his suicide vest after fleeing into a tunnel, chased by US military dogs.

The operation was conducted on Saturday night in the province of Idlib it takes two-hour, it’s one of the few areas of the country still outside Syrian regime control.

The operation was conducted on Saturday night in the province of Idlib it takes two-hour, it’s one of the few areas of the country still outside Syrian regime control. Trump said, Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest and killed himself and three of his children, “He died like a dog, he died like a coward the world is now a much safer place,”.

Baghdadi announced in 2014, the creation of a “caliphate” in areas of Iraq and Syria. The jihadist group imposed a brutal rule in the areas under its control and was behind many attacks around the world.

The blast mutilated Baghdadi’s body, an on-site DNA test confirmed his identity. The special forces spent two hours in the area and gathered “highly sensitive material”.

On Sunday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said IS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, described as Baghdadi’s right-hand man, had been killed in a separate joint operation with the US military near the northern Syrian town of Jarablus.

The location of the village of Barisha in Idlib province near the Turkish border. Many parts of Idlib are under the control of jihadists opposed to ISIS but the rival groups are suspected of sheltering ISIS members.

The government put Baghdadi under surveillance for “a couple of weeks” and “two or three” raids had been cancelled because of his movements, describing the IS leader’s move to Idlib as part of a plan to rebuild the group.

In addition, the forces targeted the compound using eight helicopters which were met with gunfire. The commandos managed to land safely and entered the building by blowing holes in the wall, avoiding the main door which was believed to be booby-trapped. After that the body was buried at sea after being killed in a raid in 2011.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the development as a “hard blow” against ISIS, he said “the fight continues to finally defeat this terrorist organization”.

Who was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?

Baghdadi, he’s real name was Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, had a reputation as a highly organized and ruthless battlefield tactician.

Baghdadi was born near Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971, and reports suggest he was a cleric in a mosque in the city around the time of the US-led invasion in 2003.

He was an Iraqi-born terrorist and the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, as well as by the European Union and many individual states, while Baghdadi was considered a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States until his death in October 2019.

Baghdadi was directly involved in atrocities and human rights violations conducted by ISIL. He embraced brutality as part of the organization’s propaganda efforts, producing videos displaying mass crucifixions, sex slavery and executions via hacking, stoning and burning.

In 2011, a reward of $10 million was offered for Baghdadi by the U.S. State Department, increasing to $25 million in 2017, that for information on his whereabouts to enable capture, dead or alive.

The story ended on 26 October 2019, by killed himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the Barisha raid.

*Miral AlAshry, Associate Professor at Future University (FUE), Political Mass Media Department

Prof. Miral Sabry AlAshry

Prof. Miral Sabry AlAshry is Co-lead for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the Centre for Freedom of the Media, the Department of Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield.

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