US Operation Targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

America took a wild ride for just a bit Saturday evening after an elusive tweet from President Donald Trump. It triggered a multitude of reactions on Twitter, ranging from speculating what the president could possibly be referring to, to celebrating what some hoped it could be, and to making the most incredibly wild predictions. There were even replies that expressed the trust some had in him as the United States President. But the message from social media that emerged from President Trump’s tweet, “Something big has just happened!” was overwhelmingly that the leader of ISIS had been killed.

All kinds of things swept through the Twitter-webs, but a viral claim that the United States had killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was first confirmed by Jonathan Gilliam, who was a Navy Seal, Federal Air Marshal, and a special agent of the FBI, and a DHS security contractor. Further, it was confirmed by American media which detailed the special operations raid targeting one of it’s most high-value targets, Baghdadi. President Trump had approved the mission about a week before it occurred.

Saturday, there were reports of US military helicopters over Syria’s Idlib province, according to a senior Pentagon official and an Army official briefed on the matter. They told Newsweek “that Baghdadi had been the target of a top secret operation in the last bastion of the country’s Islamist-dominated opposition, a faction that has clashed with ISIS in recent years.” The outlet was also told that Baghdadi was killed in the raid, and that the Department of Defense had told the White House that they had “high confidence” that the target kill was Baghdadi, though further verification is still pending.

The terror group leader had been in hiding for at least 5 years. The last time he was publicly seen was on a video published by ISIS media, “al-Furquan,” that showed a man who said he was Baghdadi. Before that, he hadn’t been seen since July of 2014, when he was filmed speaking at the Great Mosque in Mosul, Iraq. Over the years he was silent, several reports claim that he had perished, according to Wikipedia.

It has since been altered. Saturday after reports of his death in American media, the Wikipedia page had more traffic than it could handle.

This is most likely a sign that this time, Baghdadi did not escape to rise up and bounce back into his position of power, as he previously had. It was reported in February 2018 that Baghdadi was injured in an airstrike that took place in May of 2017, causing him to relinquish control of ISIS for at least 5 months. He had become the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010 after his own terror group absorbed an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria.

On Saturday night, seemingly after the operation concluded, it was reported that President Trump was to make a “major statement” to the nation at 9 am ET Sunday, to which he confirmed Baghdadi was killed in a US raid. No American soldiers were wounded during the raids, only a trained canine was injured but was removed immediately. An onsite DNA test confirmed it was Baghdadi that was killed, along with two of his wive’s, who had bombs strapped to their chests. Eleven children were also rescued during the operation and placed under trusted care.

This story has been updated.