Published 14:19 IST, October 28th 2019
'US knows successors of Baghdadi': President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump announced that ISIS founder al-Baghdadi was killed in a military operation; Baghdadi Baghdadi blew himself in his suicide vest
"The US knows the successors of deceased ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and is already tracking them", President Donald Trump said on Sunday. Trump announced on Sunday that Baghdadi blew himself in his suicide vest as he was chased to the dead end of a tunnel by the US service dogs during an American raid in northwest Syria.
Information on successors known
"We know the successors and we've already got them in our sites and we'll tell you that right now. But we know the successors," he told reporters after his major announcement. Responding to questions, Trump said early this year the US troops had killed Hamza bin Laden, son, and successor of deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden.
"Hamza bin Laden was a big thing. But this is the biggest ever. Osama bin Laden was very big, but Osama bin Laden became big with the world trade center. This is a man who built a whole, as he would like to call it, a country, a caliphate. And was trying to do it again," Trump said. "I had not heard too much about his health. I've heard stories about he may not have been in good health. But he died in a ruthless vicious manner that I can tell you," he said.
Baghdadi came to prominence in 2014, when he announced the creation of a "caliphate" in areas of Iraq and Syria. ISIS carried out a number of atrocities that resulted in thousands of deaths. "I don't want to talk about it, but he was screaming, crying and whimpering. He was scared out of his mind. Think of James Foley, think of Kayla, think of the things he did to Kayla, what he did to Foley and so many others. And for those people that say, Oh, isn't this a little violent?" he asked.
"Think of how many times have you seen men? I think in all cases, men for the most part, but in terms of this where you see the orange suits and you see the ocean and they'd beheaded. Or how many of you got to see the Jordanian pilot whose plane went down, they captured him. They put him in a cage and they set them on fire," Trump said. This was al-Baghdadi and you should never, ever, hopefully see a thing like that again, he said.
Trump said that new people will emerge, but the ISIS leader was the worst of this world. "This was the worst, probably in certain ways, the smartest. He was also a coward and he didn't want to die," Trump said. "Everybody was out and we were able to search him down and find him in the tunnel. We knew the tunnel existed and that's where he was," he added.
Updated 14:43 IST, October 28th 2019