In a statement issued by the State Department Sunday, hours after news broke that ISIS mastermind Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. raid, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called it a “great day for (the) United States, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and people all across the world who have suffered far too long from the cruelty of terrorism.”
Al-Baghdadi was killed during a U.S. Special Operations Forces raid in northwest Syria Saturday night, according to reports.
The operation reportedly lasted two hours.
President Donald Trump confirmed Al-Baghdadi’s death and said he died “in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.”
“He died like a dog, he died like a coward,” Trump said Sunday morning, describing Al-Baghdadi’s final moments as he was whining at the end of a tunnel.
According to sources, the ISIS leader set off an explosive vest as U.S. Special Operations Forces stormed his compound in the Idlib Province.
“While there is still work left to do to ensure ISIS’s enduring defeat, Baghdadi’s death follows the path of scores of other ISIS leaders that have been removed from the battlefield and can no longer commit heinous atrocities or spread their vile ideology of hatred to poison and recruit vulnerable minds,” Sec. Pompeo said.
“His evil acts of beheadings, enslavement of women, rape, torture, and pure brutality follows him to his grave.”
