“Eleven young children were evacuated and were not injured. The only ones left were Baghdadi in the tunnel and three of his young children whom he had dragged with him to certain death. He reached the end of the tunnel chased by our dogs. He activated his vest and killed himself. He killed the three children, “the president described.
The US operatives successfully identified the face of Al Baghdadi, which was not hit by the explosion of the vest, according to US military sources. DNA tests performed ‘in situ’ verified the identity of the terrorist “in a matter of fifteen minutes.”
Together with the three children and the two women, his advisor Abu Said al Iraqi, a native of Tel Afar (Iraq), according to the Idlib News Network, also died. US security sources also consider Ghazwan al Rawoui and Abu Mohammad al Halabi commanders dead.
The president has not given precise details about the death toll. “I leave that to the generals. Suffice it to say that we have left more dead than alive,” he said.
The complex was subsequently destroyed by US fighting planes to prevent it from becoming “a mausoleum for jihadist supporters.” The Iraqi state television network has already broadcast images of the assault. First, a nocturnal sequence in which an explosion can be perceived and, later, diurnal images of a crater, with blood-stained clothes around.
The Delta team that has executed the operation belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, led by US Air Force Lieutenant General Scott A. Howell, and also oversees the actions of the Special Naval War Development Group, the well-known as Team 6, responsible for the assault that eight years ago ended the life of the ex-leader of the Islamic State terrorist organization Al Qaeda, Usama bin Laden, in Abbotabad (Pakistan).
