US officials said Monday that the body of Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea as fresh details surfaced about the US special forces operation that led to his death over the weekend.
Syrian Kurds claimed to be a key source of the intelligence that led Americans to Baghdadi after years of tracking the brutal jihadist leader behind a five-year reign of terror across much of Iraq and Syria.
And an unnamed US military dog became a unlikely hero of the raid, incurring injuries as it chased Baghdadi down a dead-end tunnel underneath his northwestern Syria hideout before he blew himself and three children up with a suicide vest.
The US military basked in success Monday after the eliminating the founder and spiritual guide of the Islamic State (IS) group, capping a years-long campaign to crush the Sunni Muslim extremist organization that had at one point created a "caliphate" straddling the Euphrates River that rivaled the size of England.
"His death marks a devastating blow to the remnants of (IS)," said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
AFP
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