In an eight-minute audio released by ISIS media outlet al-Furqan, ISIS confirmed the deaths of al-Baghdadi and ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. The ISIS spokesman was considered by some analysts as the next successor to al-Baghdadi.
Army Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, said the mechanized forces moving in to Deir ez-Zor province, Syria, hailed from the 30th Armored Brigade Combat team, a National Guard unit from South Carolina.
The compound — located about four miles from the Turkish border near Syria’s Idlib province — now “looks pretty much like a parking lot with large potholes."
A U.S. counterterrorism official said Wednesday he expects a new Islamic State leader to emerge after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and warned that the extremist group’s planning of major attacks probably will go on as before.
The American commando raid that bagged Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was launched from the sprawling al-Asad airbase in Anbar province Iraq, according to a source on the ground with direct knowledge of the operation.
Syrian Kurdish forces said Monday they are increasing security at prisons and detention facilities holding tens of thousands of Islamic State militants and supporters, including foreigners, following the death of the extremist group’s leader in a U.S. military raid.