DNA testing has confirmed that the man who died during Saturday’s U.S. military raid in northwestern Syria is in fact Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, President Trump said Sunday, detailing how American forces used body fragments to confirm the terrorist leader’s identity.
“They have his DNA. More of it than they want, even,” Mr. Trump said during remarks at the White House on Sunday morning. “And they brought it with them, with lab technicians that were with them. They assumed this was Baghdadi. They thought visually it was him.”
“They did an on-site test,” the president continued. “They got samples. And to get to his body, they had to remove a lot of debris because the tunnel had collapsed, but these people are very good at that. And as I said, they brought body parts back … There wasn’t much left. The vest blew up but there were still substantial pieces they brought back.”
Al-Baghdadi, the longtime leader of the Islamic State who oversaw the group’s rise into a major force in the Middle East, died during a U.S. raid on his compound in northwestern Syria on Saturday, the president said. He fled into a tunnel to escape American forces before detonating a suicide vest and killing himself.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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