US ‘buried Baghdadi at sea’

The remains of Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi were buried at sea, US officials told ABC News yesterday.

No further details, including the location of the burial, were revealed, although the procedure was said to be similar to that used to dispose of Osama bin Laden after he was killed by US Special Forces in 2011.

The body of Al-Qaeda’s founder was taken from Pakistan to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.

His body was prepared for burial according to Islamic law, funeral prayers were recited and his remains were then consigned to the sea bed.

Al-Baghdadi was apparently killed on Saturday in a US military operation in Syria during an overnight raid. Several countries, including Turkey, coordinated with the US before the attack on the Daesh leader.

His killing came as concerns over a potential resurgence of the militant group were being raised following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and give the green light to a Turkish military operation in the north-east of the conflict-ridden country.

READ: Russia casts doubt on US operation to kill Baghdadi

While Trump is seen to have allayed some of these concerns by killing Al-Baghdadi, he faced sharp criticism for the way in which he announced the death of the Daesh leader.

Describing the last moments of his capture, Trump said that Al-Baghdadi had “died like a dog, he died like a coward, whimpering, crying and screaming all the way.”

US officials criticised this and pointed out that there was no way that Trump could have known what Al-Baghdadi was saying as there was no sound in the live feed.

It’s also feared that Trump’s decision to reveal that the Daesh leader had blown himself up may turn him into a martyr in the eyes of his followers and increase the likelihood of reprisal attacks.

Meanwhile, one of the four countries thanked by Trump for assisting the US operation to capture Al-Baghdadi, has cast doubt on the operation.

“We are unaware of any alleged assistance to US aircraft using the airspace of the Idlib de-escalation zone during this operation,” Russia’s Major-General Igor Konashenkov told state-run RIA news agency.

READ: Baghdadi ‘died like a dog’ says Trump, without hearing the audio