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Baghdadi was US 'brainchild': Russian Foreign Minister

November 3, 2019 at 12:22 pm

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was “the brainchild of the United States,” Russia’s foreign minister said Friday.

Speaking to the Russia-24 news channel, Sergey Lavrov said they want more information on the killing of the leader of the Daesh terror group.

“Everything was solemnly and triumphantly announced, but our military is still studying additional facts, and they cannot confirm yet much of what the US has said.”

Lavrov noted that Daesh emerged after the US invasion of Iraq and the release of extremists from prisons by Americans.

“Therefore, to a certain extent, the Americans eliminated the one they gave birth to, if it actually happened.”

Baghdadi led Daesh as it snapped up large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

US President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he had been killed in a late-night raid in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province.  In announcing Baghdadi’s death, Trump said the Daesh attempted to escape via a tunnel that ultimately was a dead end, taking three young children with him “to certain death.”

Read: Russia casts doubt on US operation to kill Baghdadi 

Despite Trump claiming that the head of Daesh had met his end “crying and screaming”, Moscow said that there was no credible evidence to prove that such a raid took place, especially as there hasn’t been any US or international coalition air strikes in Idlib province recently, where the raid is said to have taken place.

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

Konashenkov referred to the previous claims that Al-Baghdadi had been killed. He described the latest raid as “yet another ‘elimination’ of the former Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the Turkish-controlled part of the Idlib de-escalation zone.”