President Trump says that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the Islamic State, has been killed after a U.S. special operations mission targeted him in northwestern Syria. Trump declared that U.S. forces have brought "the world's No. 1 terrorist leader to justice."
In a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in "grand style," Trump said Sunday, Baghdadi died at the end of a tunnel when U.S. forces cornered him in Idlib province in northwestern Syria along the border with Turkey.
Baghdadi, who was with his three young children, detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and his children, Trump said.
Before his death, Trump said Baghdadi was "whimpering and crying all the way".
Trump said no U.S. troops were killed in the raid.
"The United States has been searching for al-Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing al-Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration," Trump said on Sunday morning.
"He was a sick and depraved man, and now he's gone," Trump said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group, says U.S. forces attacked ISIS targets overnight in northwest Syria, leaving at least nine people dead.
On Saturday evening, Trump hinted that the announcement was coming, tweeting: "Something very big has just happened!"
The White Helmets, a group of volunteer rescue workers who have operated in the Syrian civil war, provided NPR with a video of what the group says was the site of the attack, including rubble surrounding what appears to be a large bomb crater.
A rescue worker told NPR that about 10 bodies were recovered from the site.