The United States military has conducted a special operations raid targeting one of its most high-value targets, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), Newsweek has learned. Donald Trump approved the mission nearly a week before it took place.

Amid reports Saturday of U.S. military helicopters over Syria's northwestern Idlib province, a senior Pentagon official familiar with the operation and Army official briefed on the matter told Newsweek that Baghdadi was the target of the top-secret operation in the last bastion of the country's Islamist-dominated opposition, a faction that has clashed with ISIS in recent years. A U.S. Army source briefed on the results of the operation told Newsweek that Baghdadi was killed in the raid. And the Defense Department told the White House they have "high confidence" that the high-value target killed was Baghdadi but further verification is pending."

#Erdogan must explain to the world how he was protecting Baghdadi on his border#Syria

— Yusha Yuseef (@MIG29_) October 27, 2019

Update: @Newsweek can report Baghdadi’s two wives killed in operation. Children were not harmed. A small firefight broke out when U.S. Special Operations arrived. BaghdadI detonated a suicide vest when he could not escape. This article is updating. #Syria https://t.co/Fpr1dOSWBV

— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) October 27, 2019

The area where the operation against Baghdadi was carried out is called Barisha .. it is a town north of Idlib near the border with Turkey

— Yusha Yuseef (@MIG29_) October 27, 2019

Historical mapping obtained by @ryanmofarrell suggests the compound was under construction up until roughly September 2018 pic.twitter.com/UPD0h5aGST

— Jett Goldsmith (@JettGoldsmith) October 27, 2019

Photographs of the compound in Barisha (west/southwest of Sarmada) belonging to Huras al-Din which was reportedly targeted by Coalition forces last night.

— Jett Goldsmith (@JettGoldsmith) October 27, 2019

All reports stated there was more than just Baghdadi a lot of Jihadis killed. Big names too. Just wait a few hours for Trump to brag and we’ll get details

— Observer (@SyriaObserve) October 27, 2019

Approximately 5 hours ago, 7-8 helicopters flew from Turkish areas into Idlib. The helicopter flight consisted of transport helicopters and gunships. At the same time, several UAVs and 2 jets flew overhead. The helicopters targeted an area in Northern Idlib called "Barisha"

— Woofers (@NotWoofers) October 27, 2019

After a total time of 30-45 minutes in the area, the helicopters withdrew, but UAVs lingered in the area. Local Islamist sources confirm that a raid had taken place in the area and that someone important was dead. Now the word is that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has been killed.

— Woofers (@NotWoofers) October 27, 2019

#فيديو متداول للغارة الأمريكية التي قُتل فيها زعيم تنظيم #داعش أبو بكر #البغدادي.. فجر اليوم pic.twitter.com/XGNNENqNUo

— جريدة النهارالكويتية (@naharkw) October 27, 2019

LIVE — Trump: We know Baghdadi’s successors and we already have them in our sights

— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) October 27, 2019

Certainly not winning any diversity awards here. 😬 https://t.co/NBorB1JBvc

— 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡 𝘾𝙧𝙖𝙗 (@IntelCrab) October 27, 2019

Iraqi state TV says #Daesh leader killed, airs footage of raid https://t.co/bEbj9Z1OcG#Iraq #ISIL pic.twitter.com/d4pdtv237p

— Press TV (@PressTV) October 27, 2019

BREAKING: Defense Secretary Esper tells @martharaddatz on This Week" there were 100 US special operations forces on the ground for Baghdadi raid, they flew in on CH-47 Chinooks to the compound

— luis martinez (@LMartinezABC) October 27, 2019

"The level of intelligence. The level of work was pretty amazing." We landed with 8 helos and blew up entrances because the main door was booby trapped. Watched with Milley Pence, others. It was though you were watching a movie, adds @POTUS

— Carla Babb (@CarlaBabbVOA) October 27, 2019

[Video] - #Baghdadi ‘killing’: Anadolu Agency shoots video of area

Leader of terror group #Daesh, or #ISIS, was allegedly killed in US raid, according to reportshttps://t.co/zM5s37PwPo pic.twitter.com/u2B0hMlsd0

— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) October 27, 2019

Dana Shell Smith, a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, warned that being so descriptive could backfire by stoking more anger toward the United States.She pointed out that former President Barack Obama was far more careful in describing al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's killing. The Obama administration even pointed out that it gave bin Laden's body an Islamic funeral ritual before slipping it into the ocean.

"It was important for our relationships in the region and safety of our military and diplomats," the former ambassador wrote on Twitter. "It’s how America rolls. With honor. We don’t delight in death like the terrorists do."

Bednarek said the president’s extended remarks, in which he also repeatedly took credit for the raid and the defeat of ISIS, struck him as “a bit disquieting."

"But that is his penchant to do.”

During NBC’s Sunday Today, chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson noted that “Trump has repeatedly celebrated what he calls the defeat of ISIS,” but recalled, “He has not talked much personally about al-Baghdadi by name.” The tone and juxtaposition of those points were meant to suggest she was catching Trump in a contradiction.

“The President’s speech this morning will be a commander-in-chief moment for him, but consider the backdrop here, Willie. It comes at a time when critics have really raise questions about his policy in Syria,” she cautioned, to dump some cold water on the President.

Host Willie Geist then brought on couple leftist partisans in Obama-era CIA official Jeremy Bash and NBC political director Chuck Todd.

Bash recognized that al-Baghdadi was an important person to eliminate, but doubted if Trump’s decision would be of any military importance given his decision to leave Syria...

#Breaking| #Bahrain's Foreign Minister said the death of #ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a fatal blow to the group pic.twitter.com/NzqhGBcID1

— Asharq Al-Awsat English (@aawsat_eng) October 27, 2019

There’s no credible data to prove a successful American raid took place against Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. The US coalition didn’t even carry out any airstrikes in Idlib recently.

Earlier, Trump made a rare Sunday address from the White House informing the world that al-Baghdadi was eliminated in northwest Syria in a “daring nighttime raid” with the involvement of US special forces, planes, helicopters and drones. The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) leader met his end “crying and screaming” in the face of the Americans’ might, he said.

But the Russian Defense Ministry insisted that “there were legitimate questions and doubts about the very fact [of the US operation] and, especially, its success.”

Moscow pointed out that it recorded no US coalition airstrikes in the Idlib area in northwest Syria on Saturday when the raid was held.

It also rejected Trump’s claims that Russian forces opened up the airspace under its control in Syria to American planes to facilitate the operation against the IS leader.

The ministry questioned the very possibility of al-Baghdadi’s presence in Idlib as the area is held by Al-Qaeda offshoot, Jabhat al-Nusra, who have always been mortal enemies of Islamic State.

Moscow noted that Islamic State was crushed in Syria in early 2018 in a joint effort by the government in Damascus and the Russian forces

Moscow noted that Islamic State was crushed in Syria in early 2018 in a joint effort by the government in Damascus and the Russian forces, meaning that yet another report of al-Baghdadi’s demise “bears no effect on the operational situation in Syria or on the actions of the remaining terrorists in Idlib.”

French Defense Minister Florence Parly also questioned the significance of the claimed US achievement, pointing out that the raid only marked “an early retirement for a terrorist [al-Baghdadi], but not for his organization.”

BREAKING: Russian MoD on operation to eliminate #Baghdadi: No airstrikes from US or coalition in Idlib have been registered in recent days https://t.co/umBhbCGNDQ@mod_russia pic.twitter.com/M0JGaG7Y0u

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 27, 2019

Videos emerge from reported site of Jihadi leader al-Baghdadi’s death https://t.co/qx1T8QUrdi

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 27, 2019

In the middle of the night amid the olive trees of northwest Syria, Abu Ahmad heard soldiers "speaking a foreign language" attack the home next door.

The helicopters reportedly targeted a home and a car outside the village of Barisha. The house targeted in the raid is located near an olive grove and tents of displaced Syrians.

The 55-year-old said he had repeatedly tried and failed to befriend his discreet neighbour in the village of Barisha in Idlib province.

But now, after President Donald Trump said Sunday a US special operation killed jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the village, Abu Ahmad was left wondering about who his neighbour was harbouring.

"We have shared nothing with this man except greetings," Abu Ahmad said of his mysterious neighbour, who claimed to be a merchant from the province of Aleppo.
"He wuz a quiet man, kept to himself..."
Around midnight, US helicopters dropped forces in Barisha where groups linked to the Islamic State group were present, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The helicopters targeted a home and a car outside the village of Barisha, said the war monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.

The operation killed nine people, including Baghdadi, Trump said Sunday.

It occurred about five kilometres (three miles) from the Turkish frontier and close to one of the main border crossings.

Abu Ahmad was a few dozen metres away, he said, when he saw an "attacking force", with gunfire ringing out as warplanes whooshed overhead.

Someone speaking in Arabic called on his neighbour -- apparently named Abu Mohammad -- to hand himself over, before the forces moved in.

The operation lasted for nearly three hours, he said.

Another resident in the area who gave his name as Abdel Hameed said he rushed to the scene of the attack after he heard helicopters, gunfire and explosions.

Strikes hit the house and a vehicle that was coincidently passing through the area at the time of the attack, he said.

There were six unidentified bodies inside the house and two others inside the vehicle, the 23-year-old said.

The body of the man known as Abu Mohammad was not left among the corpses, he was told by other residents.

"Some residents say he was taken along with another person," he told AFP.

FLATTENED SEA OF RUBBLE
Under a clear blue sky on Sunday morning, the targeted house was completely flattened into light grey rubble, an AFP correspondent said.

The area was cordoned off by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist alliance that dominates most of Idlib led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Journalists were briefly allowed to film at the site.

The frame of a motorcycle lay in the rubble, its front wheel burned down to the spokes and what remained of electrical wires entangled across its length.

Covered in dust, a pink item of clothing was tangled in a branch amid the ruins.

Separated from the scene of the raid by a row of olive trees, two houses were visible nearby.

"We used to invite him to our house but he would never come," said Abu Ahmad, who has been living in Barisha for the past two years.

Standing outside the ruined house, Abu Ahmad said his neighbour used to leave early in the morning and return late at night.

"We used to invite him to our house but he would never come," said Abu Ahmad, who has been living in Barisha for the past two years.

He never saw any women or children at the house, he said, and never got familiar with the inhabitants.

"Even during holidays, we tried to build a relationship but it didn't work."

Washington Post changes headline of piece on al-Baghdadi's killing 3 times amid backlash over calling the Daesh terrorist leader a "religious scholar"https://t.co/KimPT8cjuS pic.twitter.com/XkbzBSpQOQ

— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) October 27, 2019

The killing of Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi avenges “Kurdish Yezidi women” and all who have been hurt by ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday, accusing Turkey of sheltering the terrorist leader.

“We consider the operation a vengeance for Kobane, Shingal, Khabur River, Nineveh Plains, Kirkuk, Xanaqin, Maxmour, especially a revenge for the Kurdish Yezidi women, and a revenge for humanity,” SDF spokespersons told reporters in Hasaka on Sunday.

In the early hours of Sunday, following a US-led covert operation, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, committed suicide by explosive belt after being discovered by US special forces.

The terror group has a left a notorious legacy of genocide against Yezidis, forced conversions imposed on religious minorities, and death and destruction. The group was declared defeated in Iraq at the end of 2017 and in March 2019 in Syria.

Yezidis were among the biggest victims of ISIS when their stronghold of Shingal, near the Syrian border, was overrun in 2014. Thousands of women were kidnapped, and sold into sexual slavery. Yezidi children were brainwashed and trained as child soldiers, while men were shot on site and killed en masse. The scars inflicted on the community five years ago remain as fresh as ever.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), and its female counterpart Women's Protection Units (YPJ), opened a safety corridor into Syria for Yezidis stranded on Mount Sinjar in August 2014, saving thousands from ISIS. Both Kurdish groups, which form the backbone of the SDF, have also been instrumental in freeing tens of Yezidi women and children from the hands of ISIS during their anti-ISIS ops.

“The operation that today took place was a revenge for anyone around the world hurt by the Daesh terrorist organization,” the SDF added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

The Netherlands-based Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) praised the US-led operation on “rapist” al-Baghdadi, who was known for abusing several Yezidi women, as well as US aid worker Kayla Mueller. In tweets published Sunday evening, FYF added that although many in the community welcomed his death, a trial would have been preferable. Speaking of the genocide, it added that “the memories will always be there. One day perhaps it will be exposed through actual indictments and trials.”

The SDF claimed that after taking control of Baghouz, ISIS' last bastion in Eastern Syria on March 23, they obtained "confirmed information" that Baghdadi had gone to Idlib, but they had not confirmed his exact whereabouts. "In the last days, his whereabouts were confirmed, and that information was shared with the American side, especially the CIA.”

The SDF claimed that after taking control of Baghouz, ISIS' last bastion in Eastern Syria on March 23, they obtained "confirmed information" that Baghdadi had gone to Idlib, but they had not confirmed his exact whereabouts. "In the last days, his whereabouts were confirmed, and that information was shared with the American side, especially the CIA,” their team asserted.

“As a result of joint sensitive and precise work for more than five months, between the Military Intelligence of the Syrian Democratic Forces and American forces, through coordination on the highest levels, the head of the Daesh, known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been eliminated in a joint operation with American forces today at dawn near one of the Turkish military bases in the Barisha village in the province of Idlib,” the SDF said.

The dawn operation was conducted with "actual participation" of the SDF's intelligence branch, who were very "vital members" of the whole operation, claimed the Kurdish military force.

They added that the recent Turkish incursion in Rojava delayed the operation.

“We from the Syrian Democratic Forces would like to announce that this operation was delayed for more than a month due to the Turkish aggression on our region,” the SDF claimed, referring to Turkey’s so-called “Peace Spring” operation into Kurdish-controlled Syrian territory on October 9.

The invasion was preceded by the withdrawal of US forces from the area based on the order of US President Donald Trump. Due to the Turkish invasion, SDF has to concentrate on defending its areas.

SDF Media Spokesman Mazloum Abdi told Associated Foreign Press (AFP) on Sunday that the death of the terror leader “will lead to revenge attacks”, including potential prison breaks. Security in SDF-prisons holding ISIS prisoners has been of major concern in recent weeks as Kurdish resources run low amid the Turkish invasion. Several prisoners managed to escape a Qamishli prison following Turkish shelling on October 11.

ISIS propaganda outlet Nashirnews announced via Telegram announced several attacks in recent days on SDF, Syrian and Iraqi forces.

Why was Baghdadi in areas under Turkish influence?

Baghdadi was sheltered by Turkey and Turkey has to answer why he was in areas in Idlib province that are under Turkish influence, the SDF also argued.

“We have before said that Daesh leaders are abetted and sheltered in Turkish state-controlled areas [in Syria]. Today's event, as we have already said, is the the biggest evidence of our argument,” the SDF added.

“This is the big question that needs to be asked, which the Turkish state has to answer. What was Baghdadi doing in areas under the influence of the Turkish forces in Idlib city near the Turkish border?" SDF asked.

Turkey has multiple observation points across the border of the Idlib province in Northwestern Syria. Idlib is dominated by Jihadist groups, especially the Hayat Tahrir Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The Turkish presence is based on an agreement from last year to prevent a Syrian offensive into the province.

#BREAKING: Kurdish YPG militia says Daesh spokesman Abu Al-Hassan Al-#Muhajir was killed in a joint US-SDF raid in Syria https://t.co/k0CZqlUbtA pic.twitter.com/Gh76nPEHJo

— Arab News (@arabnews) October 27, 2019