On Sunday, Donald Trump announced that ISIS chief Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi was dead. He said the US had brought the ‘world’s greatest terrorist leader to justice’.
He said in a presser that Baghdadi died ‘whimpering and crying and screaming’. He said 11 young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured.
He said test results ‘gave certain and immediate identification’. He said he died like a dog.
"He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering, crying and screaming all the way. 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.
No US troops were killed in the operation, but a number of Baghdadi's followers also died, the President said, adding that "highly sensitive material and information" had been gathered.
"He died like a dog. He died like a coward," Trump said of Baghdadi.
Despite being hunted by the world's best intelligence agencies and the US authorities offering a whopping USD 25 million reward for information leading to his capture, Baghdadi has proved to be incredibly elusive.
Baghdadi joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which merged with other Islamist groups to form the Islamic State of Iraq. He became the group's leader in 2010 after his predecessor was killed by US forces.
He renamed the group to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, widely known as ISIL or ISIS in 2013 and announced his "caliphate" in 2014.
