Washington: Finally, the end came for dreaded ISIS terror group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he was killed in a targeted raid conducted by the US army in northwest Syria.
According to media reports, a senior US defence official said that the Syrian hideout of ISIS chief was hit by the US army on Saturday.
Sources said that a final confirmation on this major development was pending as the DNA and biometric testing was being conducted and its result was awaited.
Meanwhile, shortly after the reports were out, US President Donald Trump tweeted “something very big has just happened.”
Al-Baghdadi, who is described as the world’s most wanted man, was officially designated by the US in October 2011 a “terrorist” and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture or death, the BBC reported.
Born near Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971, al-Baghdadi who’s real name is Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, has a reputation as a highly organised and ruthless battlefield tactician.
Reports suggest that he was a cleric in a mosque in the city around the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He emerged in 2010 as the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that merged with the Islamic State (IS), and rose to prominence during the attempted merger with al-Nusra Front in Syria.
Al-Baghdadi has made only one public appearance, in July 2014, in the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, which was retaken by Iraqi security forces in June 2017.
This August, the IS had released what it said was a new audio message from al-Baghdadi where he admitted that the IS groups were losing and that it was a test from Allah, saying they needed to stick together.