(Newswire.net — October 28, 2019) — Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an operation in Idlib last night, media reports.
According to local media, Al Baghdadi was killed not far from the Turkish border in the village of Barisha, in the northwest of the country. There was also a recording of an aerial attack on the home of the Islamic State leader, which left the whole site in ruins.
In the meantime, a video emerged showing what the “scene” looked like after the operation. The video shows that everything on the site is destroyed, only a pile of rocks and stones remain.
During a press conference on Sunday, Trump said al-Baghdadi was “under surveillance for a couple of weeks”, Al Jazeera reports.
According to the United States’ President Donald Trump, the ISIL chief died after running into a tunnel in the village of Barisha where he detonated an explosive vest, killing himself and three of his children. Reportedly, two women were also killed in the action.
Syrian activist Ali Al-Ays who filmed on location where the coalition commandos conducted an operation in the village of Barisha said that the whole site is destroyed.
“There was a house here that was totally destroyed. The target of the operation was the very house that was thought to belong to the leader of the organization. The coalition has destroyed the house after the operation was completed. She [the house] is totally destroyed. There were seven bodies. They were all transported to another location. Two women, one child and man. Everything is completely destroyed.”
“At this point, families lived in tents,” the Syrian activist explained. “We talked to the families, they say some strange people came and told them to take shelter, they made them sit under the trees. After they finished, the helicopter took off carrying away someone, they don’t know who” Al-Ays said, adding that the home of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, who led the global jihad, has been completely destroyed.
Should we expect a revenge from terrorists?
According to the Syrian Democratic Front commander Mazlum Abdi, after Baghdadi’s death, terrorist cells will seek revenge. Former British Defense Minister Tobajas Elwood has also warned of possible retaliation after al-Baghdadi’s death, the Daily star reports.
According to him, Al-Baghdadi’s removal, as architect of the caliphate, is welcomed, but he constantly kept ‘under the radar’, and did not establish a cult of one person, like Bin Laden.
ISIS are followers who fight for ideology, everything is in the organization, it does not revolve around just one person, Abdi explained, adding that ISIS will regroup and retaliate.
Though at minimum a symbolic victory for Western counterterrorism efforts, his death would have unknown practical impact on possible future attacks, The Time reports.