Donald Trump says ‘coward’ Isis leader died ‘whimpering and crying’

Donald Trump has confirmed Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed during an overnight bombing in north-west Syria.

US-led forces in Idlib, Syria, swarmed the Islamic State leader’s lair in the early hours of this morning following intelligence the terrorist arrived at the site 48 hours beforehand.

Giving a statement in the White House, Trump said: ‘Last night the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice.’

The president described al-Baghdadi as a ‘coward’ who died ‘whimpering and crying’ after running into a ‘dead-end tunnel’, igniting an explosive vest and killing himself and three of his young children.

Trump said no US personnel were injured in the ‘successful’ mission, while ‘many’ of al-Baghdadi’s ‘people’ were killed.

Trump said al-Baghdadi’s body had been ‘mutilated’ but was positively identified in ‘tests’ after the bombing.

He added: ‘He died like a dog, he died like a coward. He was a sick and depraved man and now he’s gone.’

It was earlier reported that al-Baghdadi’s two wives were also killed during the ensuing firefight.

After the airstrike last night, Trump tweeted: ‘Something very big has just happened!’.

Footage of a raid emerged this morning, claiming to show the moment the terrorist died in a huge explosion.

The clip, released by Syrian activists, captures a series of deafening bangs followed by an eerie silence.

Al-Baghdadi was one of the most wanted figures in the world since 2014 when he issued a sinister call to arms declaring an Islamic ‘caliphate’.

Under his rule he encouraged jihadists to engage in smaller-scale acts of terrorism which would be much harder for law enforcement to prepare against.

These instructions resulted in numerous attacks across the UK and Europe, including the Manchester Arena bombing which claimed the lives of 23 people.

CNN reports al-Baghdadi’s messages encouraged more than 140 terrorist attacks in 29 countries, excluding Iraq and Syria, killing at least 2,043 people.

In recent years the leader has been far less visible due to a £19.5 million bounty on his head.

However last month he released an audio recording calling on his followers to do all they could to free Isis detainees and women from the terrorist group being held in jails.

The Isis leader has been wrongly reported to be dead on previous occasions.

If his death is confirmed, it will be seen as a win for Mr Trump in his upcoming election campaign but an Islamic group expert has questioned how much of an impact the killing will have long-term.

Marwan Shihadah, specialist and researcher of Islamic groups, told Reuters: ‘Following the nature of these groups, they do not very much get affected by the loss of any first level leader.

‘There is no doubt it will affect some of the segments of this group. It is also considered a victory for the U.S president Trump in terms of the coming elections.’

He added: ‘It seems that its (the operation’s) timing came after the end of the fountain of peace operation. It seems also according to some media outlets that regional countries or one regional country participated in the intelligence work for this operation.

‘(This country) has not been named to avoid negative repercussions or revenge operations that the group (IS) might carry out. I think that Turkey has a role in the intelligence work.’