on very quickly that s because that is fresh information potentially that could lead them to other isis leaders, it could give them a sense of potential attacks that might be planned by isis in the area or in the region or even, you know, throughout the world. what we don t really know is exactly what baghdadi s current role was. he put out a video in april where he praised these attacks in sri lanka and it was seen by a lot of analysts as his attempt to sort of bring isis back under him, you know, to make it clear that he was the isis leader, but that doesn t necessarily mean that he was actually controlling or running the day to day ops. that s something that i m hoping that now that he if, in fact, it s confirmed that he s dead i m hoping that that s something we may be able to learn from u.s. officials who may be more willing to talk a little bit more about his role if, in fact, he s been killed. i m going to get to you, hans, they white house in just a second. richard, given t
what appears to have been cover fire. then the raid on the compound began. a farm on the edge of this town of barisha, a farm where u.s. officials say they believe that abu bakr al baghdadi the leader of isis had been hiding out and that they are quite confident that he was killed. the witness also said that in addition to the helicopter raid, that he heard jets overhead and that toward the end of the operation unclear how long it lasted, some people say about an hour and a half, he said it felt a lot longer than that, that there was some sort of missile strike or an air strike that came in and destroyed this farmhouse compound just a few hundred yards from where he lived. as you said, u.s. officials have confirmed that there was a raid, that drones, jets and helicopters were involved. other witnesses also describe a translator of sorts using a bull horn speaking in arabic telling
local villagers to stay back, to stay away as this operation was taking place. okay. reporter: now, who is abu bakr al baghdadi. yes. reporter: and how big of a deal is this? it s a very big deal. he was the leader of isis, the leader of the caliphate and this is not just a symbolic moment. he was the world s most wanted terrorist right now who had been on the run for the last well, he has been on the run for a long time but he has been on the run since he lost his state since march. richard, since you are there with all of these details, it s my understanding that he may have died as a result of wearing a suicide vest and that he detonated that. can you confirm that? reporter: i cannot. the neighbor once the helicopter fired and the helicopters were circling above, he turned off the lights, he was occasionally peeking out the windows. we ve received some videos and photographs from the area, but
targeted as well as a convoy. all of this taking place three miles away from the turkish border. we have heard from the turkish ministry of defense this morning say there was a level of coordination with turkey as well, the ministry of defense tweeting out, quote, prior to the u.s. operation in idlib province of syria last night, information exchange and coordination between the military authorities of both countries took place. we ve yet to hear from u.s. officials about this potential coordination during this operation with turkey. we also have claims from kurdish officials say that sdf forces were also somehow involved. yet to hear from the u.s. as well on that. meanwhile, we haven t heard from isis, their official propaganda channels, markedly quiet in all of this. we have heard from some sympathizers on social media, those sympathizers vowing to continue on even if baghdadi is, in fact, confirmed dead, in the
syria, but there are some more and new details. nbc news learning that special forces targeted a suspected isis safe house in syria, the mission began around 6:00 p.m. eastern saturday, it included helicopters, jets and drones. that safe house had been under u.s. surveillance in recent days and the compound later destroyed by an air strike. president trump is expected to address the nation at 9:00 a.m. eastern time, but this is where it all unfolded in northwestern syria, very close to the border with turkey. standing by for us nbc s pentagon and national security correspondent courtney kube, she is in iraq, chief foreign correspondent richard engel in syria, hans nick rolls and retired army colonel jack jacobs. welcome to you all. we will start with richard engel in northern syria. richard, give us a sense of exactly who was al baghdadi and the kind of impact his death could have.