Islamic State defector inside Baghdadi’s hideout critical to success of raid, officials say
The informant, whose nationality has not revealed, is expected to receive some or all of the $25 million bounty that had been placed on Baghdadi’s head, according to the officials. One official said he was a Sunni Arab who turned against the Islamic State because one of his relatives had been killed by the group.
The older sister of the slain leader of Islamic State (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , has been captured in northwestern Syria during a raid on Monday, according to a senior Turkish official who called the arrest an intelligence "gold mine."
Rasmiya Awad, 65, is suspected of being affiliated with the extremist group, the Turkish official said without elaboration.
"This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocols. “What she knows about [ISIS] can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys."
ISIS appoints NEW leader: Former Saddam Hussein army officer Abdullah Qardash 'takes terror group's reins' barely a day after former chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 'died like a dog' in US strikes
Abdullah Qardash - sometimes spelt Karshesh - was said to have been nominated by the now deceased al-Baghdadi to run the group's 'Muslim Affairs,' prior to his death.Abdullah Qardash - sometimes spelt Karshesh - was said to have been nominated by the now deceased al-Baghdadi to run the group's 'Muslim Affairs', as reported by Newsweek.
Awad was captured in a raid Monday evening at a trailer container in which she was living with her family near Azaz, in Aleppo Province. That's part of the region administered by Turkey after it carried out a military incursion to chase away ISIS militants and Kurdish fighters.
Gallery: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in US raid (Photo Services)
President Donald Trump says Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead after a U.S. military operation in Syria targeted the Islamic State terror leader. Trump said U.S Special Operations forces conducted the "daring and dangerous" nighttime raid and "accomplished their mission in grand style." Trump said no U.S. troops were killed.
Watching the Raid Was Like a Movie, the President Said. Except There Was No Live Audio.
Watching the Raid Was Like a Movie, the President Said. Except There Was No Live Audio.Mr. Trump described the video footage he watched from the White House Situation Room as “something really amazing to see.” The experience, the president said, was “as though you were watching a movie.
(Pictured) In this handout photo provided by the White House, President Donald J. Trump is joined by Vice President Mike Pence (2nd L), National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien (L), Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (2nd R) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley in the Situation Room of the White House on Oct. 26, in Washington, D.C. The President was monitoring developments as U.S. Special Operations forces close in on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound in Syria with a mission to kill or capture the terrorist.
Video of the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raid is displayed as U.S. Central Command Commander Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, center, accompanied by Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Jonathan Hoffman, left, speaks, on Oct. 30, at a joint press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington.
With Baghdadi in their sights, U.S. troops launched a ‘dangerous and daring nighttime raid’
U.S. troops blew holes in the walls of the compound in which the ISIS leader was staying. But much about the operation is a mystery.Taking off in eight helicopters from Iraq, the troops flew over hostile territory for hundreds of miles in the early Sunday morning darkness.
This image from video released by the Department of Defense on Oct. 30, and displayed at a Pentagon briefing, shows U.S. Special Forces, figures at lower right, moving toward compound of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Oct. 26.
From left to right, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Russell Travers and DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence David Glawe testify before the House Homeland Security Committee in the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill Oct. 30. The security leaders testified that the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leaves a vacuum that will be quickly filled and that home-grown violent extremists are still a major threat to domestic security.
A side by side comparison of the compound of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is seen before and after an air strike in the Idlib region of Syria on Oct. 26.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley hold a news conference at the Pentagon the day after it was announced that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria, on Oct. 28, 2019, in Arlington, Virginia.
ISIS Names New Leader and Confirms al-Baghdadi’s Death
Days after the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his heir apparent were killed in back-to-back attacks by United States forces in northern Syria, the group broke its silence on Thursday to confirm their deaths, announce a new leader and warn America: “Do not be happy.” In an audio recording uploaded on the Telegram app, the Islamic State mourned the loss of Mr. al-Baghdadi, who led the organization for nearly a decade, and its spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who was killed a day after Mr. al-Baghdadi and who had widely been considered a potential successor.
A man walks near the damaged mosque where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate in 2014, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq on Oct. 27.
Syrian children inspect a burnt vehicle near the northwestern Syrian village of Barisha in the province of Idlib near the border with Turkey, after media reports said Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was believed to be killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid in the same province.
A screen grab taken from a video released on July 5, 2014 shows Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi preaching at a mosque in Mosul.
Trump’s Presidency on Treacherous New Ground After House Vote
Donald Trump’s presidency stands on its most treacherous ground after the House voted Thursday to approve and proceed with its impeachment inquiry. The resolution, passed on a largely party-line 232-196 vote, does not just lay out a road map for the public phase of the inquiry. It sends a clear signal that a vote to impeach Trump, and a trial in the Senate, is all but inevitable.Trump becomes just the fourth president to be subject to a formal impeachment effort. Two of them, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, were impeached in the House but weren’t convicted in the Senate.
Awad was with her husband, daughter-in-law and five children at the time of the capture, the official said, adding that the adults are being interrogated.
Last month, Awad’s brother, Baghdadi, an Iraqi from Samarra, was killed in a raid by U.S. troops at an ISIS compound in the nearby Syrian province of Idlib. Video footage of the raid was released on Wednesday by the Pentagon.
A DNA test confirmed Baghdadi’s identity before he was later buried at sea, President Trump said last week.
The raid was a big blow to the terror group, which has lost territories it held in Syria and Iraq in a series of military defeats by the U.S-led coalition and Iraqi and Syrian allies.
Islamic State spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, considered a potential successor to Baghdadi, was himself killed in northwestern Syria in a separate attack by U.S. forces, a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News last week.
Baghdadi’s successor was named days later and is said to be a scholar, well-known warrior and “emir of war,” the terrorist group revealed.
The ‘Whimpering’ Terrorist Only Trump Seems to Have Heard
The ‘Whimpering’ Terrorist Only Trump Seems to Have HeardIn the days since President Trump gave the world a graphic account of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s last minutes, no evidence has emerged to confirm it. The secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the regional commander who oversaw the operation that killed the leader of the Islamic State all say they have no idea what the president was talking about.
In audio released by the ISIS central media arm, al-Furgan Foundation, on Thursday, the terrorist group confirmed Baghdadi’s death and named his successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayhi.
Not much else is known about his successor or how the group's structure has been affected by the series of jolts.
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Islamic State's leader is dead but the terror group 'is expanding' .
The threat from Islamic State is not finished, despite the death of its leader in a US military operation. That was the warning from experts after US President Donald Trump confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi on Sunday in Syria.Chris Costa, a former senior director for counter-terrorism for the National Security Council in the Trump administration, said: "The bottom line is: This puts the enemy on its heels, but the ideology - and this sounds so cliched - it is not dead.
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