The killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by American special forces may have been largely tied to information given to intelligence services by members of Baghdadi’s own inner circle.
That’s according to Reuters sources inside Iraq’s security forces.
Only rubble remains now of the compound where the raid took place in northern Syria.
The sources say that the biggest lead in the hunt came in February 2018 when one of Baghdadi’s aides, a man named Ismael al-Ethawi, was captured by Turkish forces, who then turned him over to the Iraqis.
Ethawi is said to have supplied the locations he and others used to meet Baghdadi, and identified how Baghdadi traveled.
Meetings would be conducted on moving vehicles to avoid detection. The sources said the vehicles were minibuses full of vegetables.
Then later in the middle of this year, a joint operation by American, Iraqi, and Turkish agents captured several high ranking Islamic State members who gave them more locations that Baghdadi had used.
Informants on the ground spotted Ethawi again in a local marketplace. They tailed him, which led to the compound Baghdadi was hiding in.
The location was monitored for months before Baghdadi emerged just days ago.
“We woke up to the sound of planes” says this local eyewitness of the raid. He says troops arrived, shouting ‘get on the ground, get on the ground’ and wanted to know if he knew Baghdadi. He didn’t.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
“He died like a dog.”
Ethawi might not be the only thread in this story, because Baghdadi was not only hunted by the the coalition against Islamic State, but also by other jihadist groups.
One of those is a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, better known by their former name Nusra Front, which split from al Qaeda three years ago.
A commander in a local militant group told Reuters that al-Sham had itself captured one of Baghdadi’s aides, and the militant claims that second aide also played a role in Baghdadi’s killing.
It raises the possibility that the jihadists passed on what they learned from the second aide to other intelligence services.
Locals allege al-Sham has contacts with the Turkish military.
U.S. President Donald Trump says that Kurdish intelligence supplied about a month ago contributed to finding Baghdadi as well.
On Sunday (October 27) Syrian Kurds claimed the operation was delayed due to the crisis with Turkey.
