President Trump on Sunday announced that Islamic State (Isis) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died following a US raid in northwestern Syria this weekend.
The attack, which had been planned for five months, was staged by Army Delta Force commandos in what Trump described as a daring mission.
Baghdadi is said to have detonated a suicide vest killing himself and three children after he was surrounded in a tunnel by the US soldiers.
“The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him,” Trump said from the White House.
“Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS and other terrorist organizations.”
No US personnel lost their lives during the attack but two sustained minor injuries, according to Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
The death of Baghdadi comes weeks after Trump withdrew US troops from Syria. The US had placed a $25 million bounty on Baghdadi’s head.
Baghdadi is believed to have been born in Samarra, Iraq in 1971 and was as a cleric in a Baghdad mosque during the 2003 US invasion that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
He joined the uprising against US forces in Iraq in its early days and spent 10 months in American military detention in 2004.
Baghdadi become the leader of al-Qaida’s Iraq faction in 2010 before he declared the Islamic State a global caliphate from the Al-Nuri mosque in Mosul in 2014.
