"This base transfer occurred amid force protection concerns sparked by escalating tensions between the United States and Iran and its proxy militias, which CJTF-OIR said led to an acceleration of the long-term transfer plan."
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."
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.
Al-Baghdadi’s last moments alive were spent in “panic and dread” as the ISIS leader was “terrified of the American forces bearing down on him," and he died “whimpering and crying and screaming” like a coward, Trump told reporters Sunday.