Earlier Saturday, US President Trump cryptically tweeted that “something very big has just happened.” Later that day, an undisclosed “major statement” by the president was announced for Sunday morning.
The US military has conducted a special operations raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, a Newsweek report says.
The raid, which took place Saturday, was approved by the president a week prior, the report says.
A senior Pentagon official and a US Army official told Newsweek that Baghdadi was the target of a top-secret operation in Syria’s Idlib province.
The US Army official said that Baghdadi was killed during the raid. The Pentagon source added that the department has “high confidence” that a high-value target killed during the raid was Baghdadi, but that further verification is underway.
The report notes that the raid took place in the Idlib province, currently controlled by Syrian Islamist militias, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – the former Nusra Front – which clashed with ISIS in recent years.
The raid was authorized after the Joint Special Operations Command received “actionable intelligence,” as the target location had been under surveillance for some time, the report says.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump posted a cryptic tweet, saying that “something very big has just happened,” gathering more than 45,000 comments.
Something very big has just happened! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2019
​Later that day, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley announced that Trump would make a “major statement” Sunday morning at 9 a.m. EST (1300 GMT or 1700HRS Kenyan Time), without providing further details.
Via Sputnik News
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