ISIS Chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi believed dead after US strike

Lucknow: The leader of the terror group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was in hiding for the last five years is believed to have been killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria on Saturday, according to sources. The final confirmation is pending while DNA and biometric testing is conducted.

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The defense official said it appears that this ISIS Chief detonated a suicide vest during the raid.

The CIA assisted in locating the ISIS leader, the defense official said.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to make a major announcement Sunday at 9 am (06:30pm IST), White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley announced. An administration official tells CNN that the announcement is foreign policy related.

In April, a video was published by the ISIS media wing al-Furqan that showed a man purporting to be Baghdadi. It was the first time Baghdadi has been seen since July 2014, when he spoke at the Great Mosque in Mosul.

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In February 2018, several US officials said Baghdadi had been wounded in an airstrike in May 2017 and had to relinquish control of the terror group for up to five months because of his injuries.

Baghdadi became the leader of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in 2010. In 2013, ISI declared its absorption of an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria and Baghdadi said that his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).

White House officials were at the White House late Saturday evening in preparation.

Trump tweeted Saturday evening "something very big has just happened!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1188264965930700801

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