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Trump said "many" of Baghdadi's people were killed and added that in blowing himself up, Baghdadi also killed three children.
Fugitive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died "whimpering and crying" in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria, President Donald Trump announced Sunday, in a major blow to the extremist group.
Baghdadi killed himself during the raid by detonating a suicide vest after fleeing into a dead-end tunnel, Trump said in a televised address from the White House.
He was positively identified by DNA tests 15 minutes after he died, the president said. "He was a sick and depraved man and now he's gone."
Trump said "many" of Baghdadi's people were killed and added that in blowing himself up, Baghdadi also killed three children.
U.S. forces suffered no personnel losses, he said, with the only injury being to a military dog. He also thanked Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq for their support.
Baghdadi had long been sought by the United States as head of an extremist group that at one point controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq, where it declared a caliphate. The Islamic State group has carried out atrocities against religious minorities and attacks on five continents in the name of an ultra-fanatic version of Islam that horrified the majority of Muslims.
In recent years the group had lost most of its territory.
But while the destruction of the quasi-state that Baghdadi built has denied the group its recruiting tool and logistical base from which it could train fighters and plan coordinated attacks overseas, most security experts believe Islamic State group remains a threat through clandestine operations or attacks.
"The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, panic and dread, terrified of the American forces coming down on him," Trump said.
"He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and his three children. His body was mutilated by the blasts. The tunnel had caved on him," Trump added.
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