US military sources told Iraqi News Agency that the operation of killing ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with eight others took an hour and 30 minutes.
The US force that attacked al-Baghdadi was trying to arrest him alive, but he blew himself up before being arrested, the "Syrian Observatory" announced.
"Eight helicopters took off from northeast Aleppo at 12:30 am, accompanied by a warplane that launched a raid on the Baghdadi hideout and clashed with elements in a house near west of Barisha village in Idlib province," Syrian Observatory added.
On Saturday, al-Baghdadi is reported to have been killed in a U.S. raid northern Syria, according to multiple reports. However, no further details have been provided yet about the operation.
News reports quoted U.S. officials with knowledge as saying that the final confirmation is pending as DNA and biometric testing is being conducted.
Noteworthy, the Islamic State – also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh – emerged from the remnants of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a local offshoot of al-Qaeda founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2004. It faded into obscurity for several years after the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq in 2007. But it began to reemerge in 2011. Over the next few years, it took advantage of growing instability in Iraq and Syria to carry out attacks and bolster its ranks.
The group changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2013. ISIS launched an offensive on Mosul and Tikrit in June 2014. On June 29, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the formation of a caliphate stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq, and renamed the group the Islamic State. In August 2014, the United States started to carry out airstrikes against ISIS.
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