Two men nabbed during Baghdadi raid, terror leader's remains disposed, US says

Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley says some soldiers to stay in Syria, where security situation ‘remains complex’; can’t confirm IS head died whimpering and crying

WASHINGTON — Two men were taken captive by US forces during the raid in Syria that led to the death of jihadist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a top American military official said Monday.

“There were two adult males taken off the objective, alive,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said during a briefing at the Pentagon.

“They’re in our custody and they’re in a secure facility,” Milley added, although he declined to provide more detail on the identity of the captives or how they were connected to Baghdadi.

US special forces conducted a weekend nighttime raid in northern Syria that led to the death of Baghdadi, who led the Islamic State jihadist group. The raid killed a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters.

“While clearing the objective, US forces discovered al-Baghdadi hiding in a tunnel. The assault forces closed in on al-Baghdadi and ended when he detonated a suicide vest,” said Milley.

A vehicle wreck amid the rubble at the site of a suspected US-led operation against Islamic State (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the previous day, on the edge of the small Syrian village of Barisha in the country’s opposition-held northwestern Idlib province, on October 28, 2019. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

The jihadist’s remains were then transported to a secure facility to confirm his identity with forensic DNA testing, Milley said.

“The disposal of his remains has been done, is complete, and was handled appropriately,” he added.

Baghdadi was buried at sea, a Pentagon source told AFP on Monday.

No details were given on where or when the body was disposed of, but it paralleled the 2011 sea burial of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after he was killed in a US special forces raid in Pakistan.

Milley would not confirm the reports.

Milley also could not confirm the president’s description of Baghdadi as “whimpering and crying” in his final moments.

The officer told reporters he did not know who Trump’s source was for the claim but suspected he had talked “directly to the unit members.”

Syrians sifting through the rubble at the site of a suspected US-led operation against Islamic State (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the previous day, on the edge of the small Syrian village of Barisha in the country’s opposition-held northwestern Idlib province, October 28, 2019. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

Milley confirmed however some video imagery of the operation would be publicly released after it goes through a declassification process.

While Baghdadi’s death has deprived IS of its “inspirational leader,” the security situation in Syria “remains complex,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the briefing.

He added that US troops were in position to retain control of key oil fields in northeast Syria.

American forces will remain positioned in the strategic area “to deny ISIS access to those vital resources,” and “overwhelming military force” will be used against any group that threatens their safety, Esper added.

Baghdadi’s death will not rid the world of terrorism or end Syria’s ongoing conflict, but it sends “a message to those who would question America’s resolve,” he said.

“The United States, more than any other nation in the world, possesses the power, and the will, to hunt to the ends of the Earth those who wish to bring harm upon the American people.”