The White House on Sunday released a photo showing President Donald Trump and senior administration officials observing the U.S. special operations forces raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northwestern Syria on Saturday.
The photo shows Trump joined by, from left to right: National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien; Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of Defense Mark Esper; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley; and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, the Pentagon’s current deputy director for special operations and counterterrorism.
(White House photo)
Baghdadi was killed in the Oct. 26 raid on his compound in Syria’s Idlib province when he detonated a suicide vest following a brief firefight with U.S. special operations forces.
“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said on Sunday. “He was a sick and depraved man and now he’s gone.”
Trump stated that he “got to watch much” of the raid, describing the video feed to the White House Situation Room as so clear it was “as if you were watching a movie.”
In the aftermath of the U.S. military operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, a photo of President Barack Obama observing the now-famous raid from the White House Situation Room became an iconic image of his administration. Here’s what the two look like side-by-side:
