US Vice President Mike Pence announced new details about the American military operation in Syria in which the leader of the extremist group Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed.
Pence said he and US President Donald Trump learned by Thursday afternoon that there was a "high probability" that al-Baghdadi was in his hideout in Syria's Idlib province, according to the Associated Press.
The US vice president told CBS that Trump ordered commanders to come up with military options and present them to him on Friday morning.
By Saturday morning, the US top brass had received the intelligence that allowed the Trump-approved operation to be carried out.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official said today that an aide to Al-Baghdadi in Iraq was killed in the west of the country a few months ago in an airstrike by American forces, and that the Americans arrested the aide's wife and handed her over to the Iraqi authorities, according to AP.
An Iraqi official said that this woman became a key source of information on the movements of the leader of the Islamic State and that the Iraqi authorities were able to determine the coordinates of Al-Baghdadi thanks to her.
Another Iraqi security official said the Iraqis recently arrested al-Baghdadi's relative who also helped with information on his movements.
Turkey and Kurdish forces in Syria also participated in the operation against Al-Baghdadi.
Trump said today that al-Baghdadi was killed last night in an operation by the US military in Idlib province.
He said that when the American forces started to attack him, Al-Baghdadi ran into the tunnel with his three children and activated the explosive vest.
Al-Baghdadi became famous in 2014 when he declared the creation of a "caliphate" in large parts of Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State imposed brutal rule over nearly eight million people and was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks around the world.
This year, the USA declared the defeat of the "caliphate" of the Islamic State.
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