WASHINGTON • The Pentagon has released its first images from last weekend's commando raid in Syria that led to the death of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and warned that the militant group may attempt to stage a "retribution attack".
The declassified, grainy, black-and-white aerial videos from Saturday's raid showed US special operations forces closing in on the compound and US aircraft firing on militants nearby. The most dramatic video showed a massive, black plume of smoke rising from the ground after US military bombs levelled Baghdadi's compound.
"It looks pretty much like a parking lot, with large potholes," said Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command which oversees American forces in the Middle East. Gen McKenzie, briefing Pentagon reporters on Wednesday, said the idea of destroying the compound was at least in part to ensure that it would not be a shrine or memorable in any way. "It's just another piece of ground," he said.
Baghdadi, an Iraqi militant who rose from obscurity to declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims as the leader of ISIS, died by detonating a suicide vest while fleeing into a dead-end tunnel as elite US special forces closed in.
Gen McKenzie said the militant took two young children into the tunnel with him - not three, as had been the US government estimate. Both children, believed to be under the age of 12, were killed, he said. The general portrayed Baghdadi as isolated at his Syrian compound, about 6km from the Turkish border, saying fighters from other militant groups nearby probably did not even know he was there.
Gen McKenzie said it was unlikely Baghdadi used the Internet or had digital connections to the outside world. "I think you'd find (he was using) probably a messenger system that allows you to put something on a floppy or on a bit of electronics and have someone physically move it somewhere."
He also said ISIS would likely try to stage some kind of retaliatory attack. "We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack. And we are postured and prepared for that," he said.
Gen McKenzie suggested the US military had secured a large amount of intelligence about the group's activities during the raid, declining to provide further details.
He added that Turkey's incursion into Syria last month, and the US pullback from the border, was not a factor in deciding the timing of the raid. Instead, he pointed to a host of other factors, including the amount of moonlight. "We struck because the time was about right to do it then, given the totality of the intelligence and the other factors that would affect the raid force going into and coming out," he said.
Separately, the US government's top counter-terrorism expert has said the ISIS leadership has a "deep bench" and a replacement for Baghdadi could surface within weeks.
Mr Russ Travers, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, did not predict which ISIS figure would take over.
But he said the group has a number of people who could take the helm, with the ability to command some 14,000 fighters who have dispersed across Syria and Iraq.
"There's no question that the losses over the weekend were significant to ISIS," Mr Travers told the House homeland security committee, referring to Baghdadi's death as well as the killing of ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.
"At the same time, it's a deep bench," he said. "My guess is that... somewhere between a couple of days and a couple of weeks, we will see a new leader of the (caliphate) announced."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
