Aerial footage released by US shows moment Isis leader’s base is obliterated

Al-Baghdadi was identified by comparing his DNA to a sample collected in 2004 by US forces in Iraq, where he had been detained.

Aerial footage released by US shows moment Isis leader’s base is obliterated
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The Pentagon has released the first government pictures and video clips of the night-time raid that ended in the killing of Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Pictures show Delta Force commandos approaching the walls of the compound in which the terrorist leader and his supporters were found. Another video shows US airstrikes on other militants who fired at helicopters carrying soldiers to the compound.

The US bombed al-Baghdadi’s lair after he blew himself and two children up with a suicide vest so that it would not stand as a shrine to him. Images were released as the general who oversaw the raid on the Islamic State leader warned the country is on alert for possible ‘retribution attacks’ by extremists.

General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said al-Baghdadi’s remains were buried at sea within 24 hours of his death.

 

 

He said the compound where he was hiding out in northern Syria, ‘looks pretty much like a parking lot with large potholes right now’.

The attacking American force launched from an undisclosed location inside Syria for the one-hour helicopter ride to the compound, he added. He said the children who died when al-Baghdadi detonated his explosives vest appeared to be under the age of 12.

Eleven other children were escorted from the site unharmed, while four women and two men who were wearing suicide vests and refused to surrender inside the compound were killed, General McKenzie said. The general said the military dog that was injured during the raid is a four-year veteran with US Special Operations Command and had been on approximately 50 combat missions.

The dog, a male whose name has not been released because the mission was classified, was injured when he came in contact with exposed live electrical cables in the tunnel after al-Baghdadi detonated his vest, General McKenzie said.

 

 

Al-Baghdadi was identified by comparing his DNA to a sample collected in 2004 by US forces in Iraq, where he had been detained.

The US managed to collect ‘substantial’ amounts of documentation and electronics during the raid, but the detail of the intelligence gathered has not been released.

Although the raid was successful, the general said it would be a mistake to conclude that Isis has been defeated. The general said: ‘It will take them some time to re-establish someone to lead the organisation and during that period of time their actions may be a little bit disjointed. ‘They will be dangerous.

 

 

We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack, and we are postured and prepared for that.’ Authorities believe al-Baghdadi had been at the compound in Syria’s northwest Idlib province for ‘a considerable period’.

The raid was briefed to US President Donald Trump on Friday and General McKenzie made the decision to go ahead on Saturday morning. He offered no new details about al-Baghdadi’s final moments.

When asked whether Mr Trump’s description of the terror leader ‘whimpering and crying and screaming all the way’ to his death was accurate, the general told a reporter: ‘He crawled into a hole with two small children and blew himself up.’