ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead Says Trump

Washington GistYouLove- President Donald Trump announced on Sunday morning that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead after a US military raid in northwest Syria over the weekend.

According to the Donald Trump, the US special operations forces mission raided the ISIS leader and there were no US deaths during the operation. The operation went successful living several ISIS rebels and fighters, killed and destroyed brutally. A woman and some kids with suicide vests were not even spared. The President did not identify a specific number of casualties but just made us know that they were “more dead than alive”. Eleven children were moved away from a building uninjured.

How Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed

Trump has reported saying that Baghdadi was chased by dogs to the end of a tunnel and with him was three children with him. He detonated a suicide vest at the end of the tunnel, therefore, killing himself and the three children with him.

However, Trump said he watched the whole operation from the White House. Situation Room beginning at 5 p.m. The mission, he said, began shortly thereafter and went on for about two hours. He was accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director for Special Operations, according to Assistant to the President Dan Scavino.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was not in the Situation Room either, but an ODNI spokesperson said Maguire was "fully aware and engaged in the planning. For the operation itself, he was out of town due to a pre-arranged engagement but watched with the CENTCOM commander."

The President has been describing in brutal terms how al-Baghdadi died. According to him, "crying, whimpering, screaming, and bringing three kids with him. To die. Certain death."

Important Democrats not aware

The President said he informed a few members of Congress of the raid ahead of his announcement, including Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But Trump said he did not inform key Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Maybe he did that so as to make the operation a secret one. Trump said a leak of the raid could have cost American lives.

"This month, the House passed a joint resolution on an overwhelmingly bipartisan 354-60 basis which rejects President Trump's green-lighting of Turkish aggression into Syria against our Kurdish partners, and calls on him to present a clear strategy to defeat ISIS," Pelosi said in a statement issued Sunday. "The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top Congressional Leadership were notified of in advance, and on the Administration's overall strategy in the region. Our military and allies deserve strong, smart and strategic leadership from Washington."

Trump also said the raid does not impact his decision to withdraw troops from Syria.

"We don't want to keep soldiers between Syria and Turkey for the next 100 years. They've been fights for hundreds of years. We're out but we are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. Now we may have to fight for the oil. That's OK," Trump said.

The statement is a shift from what Esper said Friday, that the "core mission" in Syria "remains what the mission in Syria began with, it's always been about defeating the ISIS coalition."

CNN reported early Sunday morning that Baghdadi was believed to have been killed in the raid, according to a senior US defense official and a source with knowledge. The final confirmation was pending while DNA and biometric testing is conducted, both sources told CNN. The CIA assisted in locating the ISIS leader, the defense official said.

O'Brien told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the raid, which led to Baghdadi's death, was named after Kayla Mueller, an American who was killed in 2015 while being held hostage by ISIS.