Al-Baghdadi killed himself by detonating his suicide vest, after being cornered by US commandos in a daring raid on Saturday night. The ISIS leader had been in hiding in Idlib province, one of the few areas of the country still outside Syrian regime control. A source close to the operation commented on the UK’s involvement in the mission, in an interview with the Mirror.
The source said: “The UK has an exchange deal which is long standing with the US special operations in Iraq, which mounted the mission.
“No doubt lessons were learned from previous operations.”
The Ministry of Defence said it was unable to comment on operations involving UK special forces.
The operation was put together over a period of two weeks of intense planning and surveillance, after the US acquired unspecified intelligence on the terrorist leader’s whereabouts.
President Trump said that eight military helicopters were involved in the operation and flew for more than an hour over territory controlled by Russian and Syrian force.
On landing at al-Baghdadi’s hideaway, the US commandos came under heavy fire from ISIS loyalists.
Returning fire, they breached the walls of his compound, before chasing the ISIS leader down the tunnel, where he detonated his suicide vest.
Trump revealed that the operation took two hours and claimed al-Baghdadi “died like a dog, he died like a coward.”
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The spy was able to obtain underwear belonging to the iSIS leader, which was then used to identify his remains through DNA samples gathered from the underwear.
Polat Can, a senior Syrian Democractic Forces official tweeted: “Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA to track Al Baghdadi and monitor him closely.
“One of our sources was able to reach the house where Al Baghdadi was hiding.
Al Baghdadi changed his places of residence very often. He was about to move to a new place in Jerablus [on the border with Turkey].”
He added:“Our own source, who had been able to reach Al Baghdadi, brought Al Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100 percent) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself.”
Diane Foley, whose son James was brutally beheaded by ISIS terrorists, said: “I am grateful to our president and brave troops for finding ISIS leader Al-Bagdhadi.
“I hope this will hinder the resurgence of terror groups and pray that captured Isis fighters will be brought to trial and held accountable.”
Trump mentioned Foley in the press conference as well as other American hostages killed in the group’s custody: Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
He also referenced Muath al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian pilot the terrorist group burned to death.