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ISIS Leader Believed to Have Been Killed in U.S. Raid. Aired 2- 3a ET
Aired October 27, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Newton at CNN Center in Atlanta, with stunning news from northwest Syria. It's been breaking in the last few hours. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed killed in a U.S. raid.
Al-Baghdadi apparently detonated a suicide vest, as U.S. Special Operations commandos closed in on his location. Final confirmation is pending DNA analysis and other positive identifiers. Al-Baghdadi has been in hiding for five years and locating him was based on crucial CIA intelligence.
Donald Trump is going to make a statement about 9:00 am Eastern, earlier saying something big has just happened. Nick Paton Walsh has been following this over the last couple of hours.
The repercussions will be far and wide.
But what does it mean for the savagery that was ISIS?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not even Trump can exaggerate the significance of this. This is an ideological blow to ISIS. Its author that enabled it to get thousands behind it, creates so-called caliphate across the borders of Syria and Iraq.
Something sophisticated enough that it had its own police and its own currency. That man is now dead. That is an extraordinary victory. There's no other way even America's critics can deny the fact. An extraordinary victory for U.S. intelligence gathering and the military reach here.
Bear in mind because this occurred at the weakest part of their ISIS campaign, where President Trump's own orders had them pulled back when the job had yet to be finished. It does appear with the death of al- Baghdadi, that ISIS is not finished but this chapter has come to a close.
They will have to find new leadership, a new guise and will have to explain this to followers how this occurred. They possibly know an evacuation plan. The leader of ISIS appears to be dead. He gave birth to and promoted the sickening creed that cast so many innocent lives.
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WALSH (voice-over): His face in public only once and even then in the presence of a small number. This is the moment at Friday prayers in a freshly conquered Mosul Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, creator of one of the most successful and inhuman terrorist networks in history chose to reveal himself.
Yet, before the infamy at this pulpit, he spent a decade rising quietly. A PhD student said to like football, these Pentagon records show, his capture by U.S. forces in 2004 near Fallujah, his hometown and held for years as a civilian internee at U.S. Camp Bucca. It was there, one expert who knew him, that he turned.
HISHAM HASHIMI, ISIS EXPERT (through translator): Al-Baghdadi was not cruel or radical at the time, he just wanted to fight the Americans. However, he leaned toward sectarian violence in Bucca at a school, where he met foreigners and some Iraqis who filled his head with such ideas.
WALSH (voice-over): The officer in charge of the camp remembers the last words of the man they released.
KENNETH KING, FORMER COMMANDER, CAMP BUCCA: As he was leaving -- and he knew my unit was from Long Island, New York -- he looked over toward us and as he left, he said, "See you guys in New York."
Here we are a few years hence and I look at those words in a little bit of a different context right now.
WALSH (voice-over): Then there is silence, a long stretch in the shadows of Iraq's savage civil war before hitting the Al Qaeda sanctions list in June 2011. Here as Abu Du'a, he led the Islamic State of Iraq, the Al Qaeda franchise in Iraq, whose previous leader, Zarqawi, the U.S. killed.
But as the U.S. left Iraq and the Arab Spring fell apart, the increasingly sectarian violence of Syria's civil war became a magnet for the bloodthirsty. Baghdadi, silently behind an ISIS brutality so extreme even Al Qaeda disowned it, leading the extremist groups to split in February of 2014 and months later, the group, to show its fighters breaking the borders of Syria and Iraq, declaring their caliphate.
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WALSH (voice-over): With Baghdadi at its helm, claiming direct lineage from the Prophet Muhammad, the new caliph. This was Baghdadi's moment, the pinnacle of years of calculation and ISIS rose fast.
Then came the attack on and occupation of Mosul. The atrocities against the Yazidis in Mt. Sinjar, the beheadings of Western hostages, the besieging of Kobani, horrors marked by an obscene worship of violence. WALSH: In all these, Baghdadi is invisible, yet doubtless the key decision-maker. But one of the more terrifying things about the ISIS he helped create is not its obsession with gruesomely videoing acts of murder but, instead, its harnessing of social media to create a global franchise amongst people it had often never met -- in Libya, Afghanistan, Paris, Brussels, atrocities committed by people who were attracted to ISIS' brand to commit atrocities and even die for it.
WALSH (voice-over): But in November 2014, rumors of an airstrike hitting him and then, within a week, a recording of his florid speech.
ABU BAKER AL-BAGHDADI, ISIS LEADER: (Speaking Arabic).
WALSH (voice-over): It became a pattern: no public appearances mixed with randomly released audio statements. U.S. officials told CNN that they believe he was injured in May 2017 and had to take five months away from his leadership duties as a result.
Yet from that moment onwards, what was left of ISIS' so-called caliphate collapsed in on itself. Mosul, freed from their grip in July, Raqqa that October.
ISIS reduced to a tiny slip of land on the Iraqi and Syrian border and an idea, infectious, hateful, still capable of inspiring barbaric insanity, yet now without its figurehead, a man willing to lead his followers to death but only from the shadows.
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WALSH: A startling moment where ISIS has received a body blow in their ideology. Make no mistake, the grievances, the sense of disenfranchisement of a brutalized life that allowed them to grow in the first place in Syria.
And in Iraq, where many of the Sunnis feel disenfranchised. That has not gone away. These people are aggrieved. Something like ISIS will continue to regroup, possibly thrive, despite the death of its leader.
But a seismic blow. Let me talk a little bit about what we know about this instant. We know the Special Forces commandos. And that's a ground raid. It was an Idlib province. That's enormously significant for the story. That means the leader of ISIS was hiding in an area, where Al Qaeda have sway.
Idlib is a complicated area, often bombarded. Civilians herded there, frankly, after the violence all around them, trying to find a safe place. Also, too, it is a stronghold of Al Qaeda. What you do about that many militants who have a serious ideology and look to the West, is what do they do about the Idlib situation.
Did the leader of ISIS hide in the stronghold of Al Qaeda. Turkey said it's been at the forefront of the fight against ISIS. It's critics are accusing it of allowing ISIS to be creative.
I saw myself arriving in 2013 and crossing over the border into areas that would become the ISIS so-called caliphate. These questions about Turkey's involvement and how they inserted themselves into the area will be elucidated. This is a victory for Donald Trump. He will make the most of it he possibly can and exceed our expectations.
At the same time, you cannot take away from any of this the extraordinary feat of U.S. military intelligence, who pulled off the most important goal in the fight against ISIS.
NEWTON: As you just indicated, the where and the how is highly significant. We have new video we want to bring in.
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NEWTON: These are videos that appear to show a major operation, involving several helicopters and warplanes. It is in Idlib province. Close to the Turkish border. Activists believe it is part of the U.S. raid targeting al-Baghdadi. CNN cannot confirm its authenticity. But let's take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. (Speaking foreign language).
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NEWTON: You were watching nighttime video there of images that Syrian activists claim is part of that U.S. raid targeting ISIS leader al- Baghdadi. It was in the cover of dark, as you would expect.
Important to note, if it had gone on in the last few hours, this would be something that President Trump would have been following in real time, similar to how Barack Obama would have been following the raid with Osama bin Laden.
I want to bring Nick Paton Walsh, to give in insights what you just saw.
Not much to see. I want to go back to the location and how significant it is so close to the Turkish border.
WALSH: We don't know this is where it occurred. But there is something different about that video. Strikes in Idlib, they tend to be broad onslaughts of jet-dropped munitions on a certain area.
This is specifically targeted, repeated blasts, suggesting that whoever is firing the going for a target. So certainly something different is happening there. It's hard to tell from that video, who the target is.
You can hear jets and multiple difficult aircraft are doing the firing. If it is northern Idlib province, that doesn't increase or decrease Turkey's involvement in that. If Baghdadi was hiding close to Turkey, it could have done more. Turkey has been persistent that it's been a major contributor in the fighting with ISIS.
This is a daring raid, it seems. U.S. Special Forces commandos were involved in the raid, that would suggest they put people on the ground to be sure they got the man they were looking for. The detail we're hearing that Baghdadi blew himself up with a suicide vest. There may have been a ground force in there at some point.
And, perhaps, the aftermath of the scene was obliterated. The Arabic background talk, a friend over the phone or trying to pass on the information of what's happening. It's rare to see that concentration of fire unless it's the U.S.-backed coalition going after people, Al Qaeda and Syria, they hit in the past. We'll hear more detail in the hours ahead.
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WALSH: And the key issue is, if it was Idlib, that is an area controlled by a pro-Turkish militia. But mostly, it is Al Qaeda there. That's been little doubt. It mixes millions of civilians who have been running to Idlib for shelter with moderate rebels backed by Turkey and Al Qaeda in Syria.
How did the leader of a competing franchise, al-Baghdadi, seek shelter in Al Qaeda's territorial homeland?
We don't know. Also how did the U.S. come to find him there.
And how was this planned and came together in a matter of days?
NEWTON: Nick, stand by for us, as we go to Bob Baer as we analyze this, as well.
Bob, of course, the video we just saw and what Nick was saying there. Someone was eye balling him in some way, shape or form. We saw the Russians be confused in years prior, hoping they had killed al- Baghdadi in an airstrike, that turned out not to be true.
Does this surprise you?
One is the location, right?
This would have had to have been commandos, boots on the ground doing this.
BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: It doesn't surprise me at all, Paula. In a raid like this, the tactics are uniform, speed and maximum violence. They came in with a lot of forces. They came in with total intelligence, awareness of what the neighborhood was like. Who was armed.
If there's any machine guns, positions, armor, any of it. When they come in, they take it all out. Nothing moves. Anything moves, it's shot and killed. Going in to get Baghdadi, it was almost definitely -- they needed to get his body but he probably didn't have a chance because they come with so much force. And going back to be the intelligence. It has to be real-time. The
troops have to know where Baghdadi is. They cannot take the risk of his being moved at the last minute. It's happened in Tehran and Vietnam and the rest of it. They know their lesson.
There's no force that will take them on. The only way to conduct a raid of this size, is from Turkey. Whether the Turks actually located Baghdadi, there's a possibility. But he had to hide in an area near Turkey, that tells us he was on the run and was desperate. It was a matter of time before he would be found.
NEWTON: Was it intelligence help from Turkey that helped locate him?
Perhaps yes. Perhaps not.
And what repercussions, that had, when we saw the United States allow Turkey to move into that area of Syria, speculation?
Go ahead, Bob.
BAER: We should speculate. The Turks at this point owed Donald Trump, a big favor. And this might be it. Go get Baghdadi. A lot of pro-Turkish militias out there. Islamic groups, that would have been able to collect intelligence and install cameras on Baghdadi's place. All sorts of possibilities here.
This couldn't have been done by American forces in Iraq or by sea. You would need a lot of support, radar jammers, everything else.
NEWTON: Understood. Turkey is a NATO ally. About the location, that's significant here, as well. We've been hearing for years, those fighters for ISIS knew where to go. They knew to head to Turkey, yet it still has a huge problem on that border. Even now that Baghdadi may be dead.
BAER: They have a huge problem. Syria will be a mess for a long time. It's going to be a quagmire for them.
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BAER: There's going to be new Islamic groups rising there. And sealing that border is very difficult.
Turkey is playing a dangerous game. Turkey knows that getting rid of Baghdadi isn't the end of this war. That's one of the reasons they insisted on going in. It's on their border. They had airports attacked. They lost a lot of people. They are sitting on a volcano. So one of the reasons they convinced Trump to pull out of Syria. They stepped in and did it themselves.
NEWTON: And are in the process of getting that buffer zone. Saying, if you can't get Kurdish forces out of the buffer zone, we'll do it ourselves.
Bob, we'll leave it there. Stand by us, as we follow a U.S. military raid that's believed to have killed the leader of ISIS. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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NEWTON: Welcome back. We continue to follow major breaking news concerning ISIS. Sources tell CNN the head of ISIS was reportedly killed in a U.S. military raid. Apparently, Defense officials say al- Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest during the raid. They're now conducting DNA tests to confirm.
Donald Trump is going to make an announcement on foreign policy. That's all we know right now. I want to explain what we're looking at. That's video just in to CNN. It's being circulated by Syrian activists. We cannot authenticate this.
It does appear to show an air operation in northern Idlib province. That's close to the Turkish border. Activists believe it is part of the raid targeting al-Baghdadi. We cannot confirm that's what you're looking at. But this is the video making the rounds by the Syrian activists.
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NEWTON: Want to go to Sam Kiley on the Turkish-Syria border.
Sam, the location is shocking. In that context, we've heard for the last few hours, this is a very populated area there. Talking about hundreds of thousands of civilians.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Of course, there's been hundreds of thousands of refugees driven out of cities like Aleppo, forced into this one area, outside of the control of the Syrian government and its Russian allies.
But they remain victims of airstrikes by Russian and Syrian aircraft and artillery attacks. It is an area, in part, that has Turkish troops on the ground as part of the deal to try to de-escalate that area.
Now within that context, we've got, what was known as the Al-Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda franchise that is the dominant group, really, throughout that region. They are staunch enemies, with the so-called Islamic State.
In some respect, it might be the last place you would want to go and hide, if you were al-Baghdadi. The man who declared himself heretically in the view of Al Qaeda, the caliph and now, hiding just five or six miles inside the Syrian territory, close to the Turkish border, vulnerable to exposure. Not only by Al Qaeda but other groups there.
One element that's not there in any significant number, are the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces. They've been fighting alongside the United States and other allies, the United States crushing their ability to hold territory. Now forcing Baghdadi into the arms of his rivals.
They are united in their hatred among the West. That's maybe how he was able to covertly embed himself in that environment. There's no indication he was there, as a guest, if you like, of the related groups. He was, nonetheless, forced out.
The caliphate had never been occupied in any significant way by his followers. This was a raid of great complexity, involving aircraft and has to involve some kind of ground element to retrieve the bodies there, in order to conduct the DNA analysis, to find out if the man targeted, believed to be al-Baghdadi, was killed in this raid.
American officials telling CNN they are conducting those tests. They would have had troops on the ground to get that kind of evidence. In all probability, it was in part launched from Turkey. There is an airbase in Incirlik, not very far away from where this operation was conducted. It was conducted in a very confused space. Not only in the environment where you have Al Qaeda elements on the ground but the Turkish forces and militia in that area. Many of them further east.
Amidst all of the complexity to carry out these operations, is quite remarkable. It represents, Paula, the isolation of the king of the Islamic State but not the end of the idea. In a sense, back in April, when Baghdadi released an audiotape, where people were urged to break out of the camps, from lock and key and also to conduct operations and get a sense of resurgence and re-ignite the brand that had been so magnetic in the territory, in Syria and Iraq.
He has a great number of followers still in this region and around the world. Many will see this moment, not of defeat but of a celebration, of martyrdom of their caliph. The ideas that have underpinned the Islamic State and Al Qaeda before that remain alive. As Nick Paton Walsh was saying earlier on, the grievances locally that have driven them into the hands of these extremist groups also remain.
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NEWTON: Yes. They haven't gone anywhere. That's likely why nations are in a tightened state of alert, wondering if there will be revenge attacks. Sam Kiley, we'll continue to check in with you.
You're watching CNN breaking news coverage, of the military raid that appears to have killed the leader of ISIS. Stay with us.
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NEWTON: I'm Paula Newton at CNN Center in Atlanta. We continue to follow the breaking news that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON (voice-over): That nighttime video that we're all looking at right now, was apparently shot by Syrian activists, of a military operation, as it got underway near the Turkish border. CNN cannot confirm that it was part of that raid targeting al-Baghdadi.
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NEWTON: A U.S. Defense official tells CNN that al-Baghdadi apparently detonated a suicide vest, as U.S. Special Forces closed in. DNA analysis will confirm whether or not it was al-Baghdadi. The Islamic cleric has been in hiding for five years. Locating him was based on CIA intelligence.
Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement at 9:00 am Eastern. Earlier, he tweeted significantly, quote, "Something very big has just happened."
We want to go to Nick Paton Walsh, in Northern Iraq, really trying to parse all of this with us.
If he says that something big happened, it is an understatement at this point. If it is true, that U.S. forces have killed Baghdadi, to decapitated the head of that savage and violent ISIS caliphate.
WALSH: I think for the ISIS fighters in detention, who've seen the caliphate deteriorate over a lengthy and successful U.S.-backed campaign for the Syrian Kurds.
[02:35:00]
WALSH: The Syrian Kurds, are the ones who've borne the brunt of so much of the past weeks' disruption here kicked ISIS out of the territory and put al-Baghdadi, in this position, where he seemed to have sought shelter in his rival, really, Al Qaeda.
They have similar ideas but they're not bedfellows in that fight. It's a startling blow for ISIS. Long expected to some degree because of the nature of how the U.S. fought terror groups like that, night raids, taking out leadership.
Here they drilled down to the point where Baghdadi was so isolated, he found himself in this part of northwestern Syria. The broader question is how he came to be there and exactly where he was when this occurred.
The limited details we have, suggest some kind of scenario. And a big caveat that we have yet to hear officially, from the White House, from the United States, that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, dead. That's where everything is pointing.
If that is the case, it appears that Special Forces commandos did insert themselves and may have been the initiation of the operation. If Baghdadi did kill himself with a suicide vest, that would suggest that a ground assault was in the mix. An airstrike would have come upon him too fast for that to have happened. It is rare to see a raid targeted so intensely on an area like that,
that may be the aftermath where firefighters are accompanying him or the scene, after the forces were destroyed. A lot of this is speculation. Some of it well-informed.
Idlib does appear to be where it did occur. That brings other questions. Turkey has, in some ways, fought hard against ISIS. Also, too, being criticized for being so lax on the arrival of jihadists in 2013 and 2014, that it allowed the creation of radical Islamist groups.
Turkey also criticized for its proximity to some of the fighters have been accused of being close to Al Qaeda. Fighting against the Kurds, a separate part of this campaign. That's how one U.S. official describes the forces.
A lot of questions will be asked about how involved in this raid Turkey was. One is that Turkey knew nothing about this. The sensitivity and U.S. Special Forces prosecuted it. It's so close to Turkish airspace. If it's the area that these were pointing towards, it would have been precarious to attempt something like that.
They may not have told the Turkish the entirety of the target. But that they wanted to do something there. You could argue that facilities in Turkey could have been used, as well. These are the things that will be learned ahead.
Officials are mindful of what happened with Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden was killed and not to repeat the same stern statements for Islamabad they had in 2011. If you recall what happened then, Osama bin Laden was hiding under the nose of the Pakistani version of West Point in a villa, barely leaving that, if not at all.
Forces came in and snuck him and killed him and left before Pakistan knew anything about it. There was some attempt that Pakistan officials may have been prewarned. They weren't. The relationship between Islamabad and Washington never recovered after that blow.
Many saying why should we consider Pakistan an ally, if our worst- wanted man is hiding that close to them? That's how the U.S. will have to manage its relationship with Turkey. Turkey probably had to know something. There was firepower and aircraft close to the U.S. border. A lot of questions have to be answered here.
People, I'm sure, making sure that everything has been scoured from that scene, what remained of al-Baghdadi's body, if it was him. All things point to that being the case at this point. I put the caveat in because we haven't heard the official announcement.
They will be looking at that for future targets to make sure how al- Baghdadi was able to hide there so long. And the questions will be asked about who sheltered him and supported those groups.
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WALSH: And how did he end up quite so far away from what used to be ISIS' caliphate.
NEWTON: You're in northern Iraq. What will be the reaction to this?
WALSH: There are small parts of the Sunni population that originally gave ISIS the foothold. That's where ISIS began. It's born into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They used bulldozers to break down the borders. It's a small part of the population will feel some sense of loss, the author of that leadership.
But the overwhelming majority of Iraqis will feel relief this man is gone. Possibly in trepidation of what it means for ISIS next. A sense of happiness that this chapter of ISIS has passed.
We look at the attacks in Paris and London and the United States and the Philippines and link them back to ISIS. But no country has lost more people in the fight, I think it's fair to say, than Iraq, where ISIS took over Mosul, where Iraqi special forces fought tooth and nail in the rubble there. Where ISIS continued to take civilian lives in the country here. It's been a brutal chapter again for Iraq's people.
Bear no mistake at all, the normal Iraqis will consider today to be a great day of relief and possibly happiness. Here in northern Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, there will be the Yazidis, subjects of war crimes by ISIS, who enslaved their women and took their lands.
Almost on the outskirts of where I'm standing here, Irbil, in 2014, ensured they wouldn't get into a population center this size. This isn't the end of the issue. We look at these moments, say let's move on to the next thing. It would be unwise to do that.
ISIS will work out who to put in its place. Not because ideology, it is the online virus, rather than a corporate structure. Because, too, the reasons that ISIS got traction in this part of the world, simply haven't gone away.
The Sunnis in Syria, after years of bombardment, oddly found ISIS a viable way to run their society. There were actual communities that thought ISIS' way of life, was preferable to what they had around them. And a similar narrative in Iraq, too.
The American presence here, after the civil war between Sunni and Shia, the Islamic State presented for some Iraqis a way to feel protected or at least getting some order in life. You can't forget that. Those grievances have not gone away. There's family members of ISIS awaiting help, too. So the underlying reasons still there, too.
NEWTON: Right, Nick. It's startling to see the defiance. If they have the opportunity, they want the caliphate back. Nick Paton Walsh standing by. We continue to cover this breaking news. A U.S. military raid is believed to have killed the leader of ISIS. We'll have more in a moment.
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NEWTON: We want to bring you up to speed on the major breaking news we're following. CNN has been told that al-Baghdadi appeared to have died in a U.S. military raid. A source familiar with the operation says it was carried out by Special Operations commandos in Syria.
Al-Baghdadi apparently detonated a suicide vest during the raid. Officials are conducting DNA testing. Donald Trump is expected to make a major announcement on foreign policy.
We have just received new footage. It's been circulated by Syrian activists online. Let's take a listen.
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NEWTON (voice-over): It appears to show, as you see there, under the cover of darkness, an air operation in northern Idlib province. That's close to the Turkish border. Activists believe it's part of the raid on al-Baghdadi.
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NEWTON: We cannot confirm its authenticity. But we continue to receive these videos. There's a new video I want to bring to you. They're circulating by Syrian activists.
This shows audio. You can hear the audio of this. Again, significant here, even on the location. As we bring in that audio, I want to bring in our Bob Baer, a former CIA operative and CNN analyst.
Bob, we saw the one video there. I want to get to the other audio we have in a moment.
From the video you see there, a few things, right?
Under cover of darkness. Obviously, that would be when you would expect this to happen. What does any firepower that you see there tell you, if anything?
BAER: It was more -- it was at least a regiment probability went into the area. You have the Rangers go in, something like SEALs, Delta Force, platforms up in the air, F-16s and the Russian air force in the area. Any attack by the Russians, intentional or not, we wouldn't be able to defend our force.
So it's amazing the amount of thousands and thousands of people involved in a raid like this.
[02:50:00]
BAER: As Nick has been saying this took months to prepare. Confirm the intelligence, get the forces in position, with absolute secrecy. And know you could go in there and not fail. The last thing, by the way, on a political level, this president would need, is to go into a raid like this and lose a lot of people. So they went in, well prepared and well equipped.
NEWTON: Well, armed and taking no chances especially when you have to have that kind of firepower and as you already mentioned to us, having to have the boots on the ground.
I believe we also have that audio that's come in as well and, Bob, if you'll listen to it with me, it is interesting. Take a listen for a moment.
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NEWTON: Now a lot of what we heard there might sound random to viewers.
But what does it sound like to you, Bob, when you hear that?
BAER: Well, I mean, having been with these guys before and watched them use Gatling guns, for instance, these little helicopters called Little Birds. They'll take snow shovels and feed a hopper with ammunition and a Gatling gun will cut down a wall.
This is starting to look like to me more like an invasion, a very quick invasion than a commando raid.
So literally a flash invasion, you go in very quickly but with awesome firepower, air power boots on the ground, in order to obviously get to your target, al-Baghdadi.
BAER: Yes, as they say, extreme violence would be the objective. They simply can't afford to have -- it's not like the movies where you're sending in people quietly with night-vision goggles and they're signaling each other and they have small arms.
No, you go in and you get to the objective, whether he's alive or dead, to get his body for DNA. And the rules for doing entry like this, a dynamic entry, is what we call a quarter-second rule. Anybody who moves, you shoot and kill because they have suicide vests on. They'll shoot back and these things happen very quickly.
And the chances of anybody getting out of an entry like this alive, except our own forces, are close to zero.
NEWTON: Yes. So many details to come and I have to point out, right, Bob, the president would have been able to monitor this and even see some of this happening, right, in real time?
BAER: He'll see it with cameras, live.
NEWTON: Extraordinary what we're about to hear likely in the next few hours. Bob Baer, continue to stay with us.
And stay with CNN as we continue to follow the breaking news of a U.S. military raid that is believed to have killed the leader of ISIS.
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[02:55:00]
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NEWTON: And here at CNN, we are following breaking news on the apparent news of the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. U.S. Special Operations commandos launched a raid in northwest Syria after CIA intelligence led them to the suspected hiding place of the elusive Muslim cleric.
A U.S. Defense official says he apparently detonated a suicide vest as forces closed in on him. President Trump is expected to make a statement Sunday morning 9:00 am Eastern. Late Saturday the president tweeted something very big has just happened.
We want to remind you the ISIS leader inspired many attacks around the world, the Orlando night club shooting, the Istanbul airport attack, the attacks in Paris, the Ariana Grande concert, all inspired by ISIS. National security officials on alert around the world now for revenge attacks.
Thank you for watching us and this breaking coverage. Natalie Allen picks up with our special coverage after a quick break.
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