‘He died whimpering and crying’: Trump announces Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in US raid in Syria

For years, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ruled a brutal international terror organisation that killed thousands of innocents and held a territory greater than the size of Britain.

In the end, he died like many of his victims: cornered and afraid.

The Isis leader was killed during a raid by US special forces in Syria after being chased “crying and screaming” into a dead-end tunnel, where he ignited an explosives vest.

US president Donald Trump confirmed the death in a dramatic Sunday morning address to the nation, in which he gave a grisly account of the terror leader’s final moments.

“The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down upon him,” Mr Trump said.

“He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” he said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward.”

Baghdadi’s death, coming seven months after the fall of the Isis caliphate, is likely to deal a significant blow to the terror group.

The jihadi leader, who became emir of the Islamic State of Iraq group in 2010, took it from underground insurgency to a proto-state that ruled over around 10 million people. The once mighty caliphate has all but crumbled, and thousands of his fighters have been killed or languish in jail cells.

Since the caliphate’s collapse earlier this year, western intelligence agencies had speculated that Baghdadi had gone into hiding somewhere in the desert regions of Iraq or Syria. Despite being the most wanted terrorist in the world, he still managed to release occasional audio and video messages to Isis supporters.

Speaking from the White House, Mr Trump said Baghdadi met his end when the tunnel he had retreated into caved in due to the explosion caused by his suicide vest. He killed three of his own children with him.

The president added that Baghdadi’s “mutilated” body was retrieved and tested, providing “certain, immediate and totally positive” identification that it was the terrorist the US has hunted for so long.

Baghdadi has been rumoured to have been killed a number of times. In 2017, Russia said it was investigating whether one of its airstrikes on the city of Raqqa killed him and 300 other fighters. Other reports suggested he had been incapacitated by a US-led coalition strike.

News of the raid first emerged around midnight on Saturday when locals in northern Syria reported hearing gunfire and helicopters near the town of Barisha, just five miles from the Turkish border.

While rumours swirled that Baghdadi had been killed, the details of the operation were withheld so they could be announced by Mr Trump.

Mr Trump said the US began to receive intelligence on the whereabouts of Baghdadi around a month ago. Intelligence officials were able to put the location under surveillance two weeks ago, allowing the president to authorise the raid three days ago.

US military personnel took off in eight helicopters from an unidentified military base in the Middle East.

As they approached the compound where Baghdadi was thought to be hiding, the helicopters came under gunfire but were able to land safely.

They quickly cleared the compound, “with people either surrendering or being shot and killed”, said Mr Trump. Eleven children were removed, uninjured, and taken into care by a third party whom the president declined to name. US soldiers captured and later imprisoned several Islamic State fighters.

Baghdadi fled into a tunnel complex, dragging three of his young children with him and pursued by US soldiers. When they demanded he surrender, he refused, and detonated his belt.

Boris Johnson said: “The death of Baghdadi is an important moment in our fight against terror but the battle against the evil of Daesh is not yet over. We will work with our coalition partners to bring an end to the murderous, barbaric activities of Daesh once and for all.”

In the hours after the raid, there were conflicting reports about who and what information paved the way for the operation.

Iraq’s intelligence service said it had provided the US-led anti-Isis coalition with the exact coordinates of Baghdadi’s location, paving the way for the raid that reportedly killed him.

The agency learned of Baghdadi’s location from documents found at a secret location in Iraq’s western desert after arresting an Iraqi man and woman from within his “inner circle”, an Iraqi intelligence official told Reuters.

“We have been constantly coordinating with the CIA, providing valuable information that the Iraqi National Intelligence Service has on Baghdadi’s movements and place of hiding,” the official said.

Mr Trump thanked a number of countries for their assistance in the raid, including Turkey, Russia, Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which he said provided intelligence. The UK military was not believed to be involved in the operation.

Baghdadi’s alleged death comes at a time when many feared Isis was on the verge of a resurgence. A military operation by Turkey against Kurdish forces in the northeast has caused mass displacement and chaos, and led to a reduction in anti-Isis operations.

The group will now undergo a hunt to replace one of the world’s most deadly jihadi leaders.

Baghdadi was not just the Islamic State’s military chief, but a self-proclaimed spiritual and religious leader. He was key to the group’s brutality and its propaganda appeal, which brought followers from all around the world.

Born in the Iraqi city of Samarra in 1971 and radicalised by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he claimed to have descended from the Prophet Muhammad. His background in religious instruction gave him legitimacy in the eyes of his jihadi followers.

To the world, however, Baghdadi was a monster, responsible for untold death and suffering. Under his command, Isis committed genocide against the Yazidi people and took thousands of women as slaves. It murdered hostages and massacred civilians – most of them Muslims in Iraq and Syria.