President Donald Trump said the U.S. military killed the person who likely would have replaced ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as head of the terrorist organization.
Trump didn’t specify who he was referring to, but the United States on Monday confirmed the killing of Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, a spokesman for ISIS and also a high-ranking figure in the organization, Reuters reported.
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces chief Mazloum Abdi said the spokesman was “targeted” in a raid.
A spokesperson with the Kurdish forces said that “two U.S.-led operations have effectively disabled top ISIS leadership who were hiding” in northern Syria, adding that many more are “hiding in the same area,” according to the report.
On Sunday, Trump confirmed the death of al-Baghdadi, saying that U.S. military forces tracked him down in northern Syria’s Idlib province before he was cornered in a tunnel. He then detonated his suicide vest, killing himself and three of his children.
DNA testing was immediately carried out to confirm his identity, Trump said.
The president later posted a photo on Twitter of a U.S. military dog that was involved in the raid.
“They blasted their way in, and then all hell broke loose. It’s incredible nobody was killed. Or hurt. We had nobody even hurt,” Trump said. “And that’s why the dog was so great.”
The killing of the top leadership will be devastating to ISIS, said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
He said Trump approved the raid last week, adding that the main objective was capturing him or killing him.
“The president approved a raid on the target, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and if we didn’t capture him, of course, we were going to kill him,” Esper said.