began a 48 hour countdown clock because baghdadi s next relocation was thought to be imminent. as you said, the fascinating part, the reason the kurds new when baghdadi was is because a kurdish undercover operative was able to sneak into the terror leaders compound and steel a pair of his underwear. a rapid dna test and then confirmed with 100% accuracy that it was in fact baghdadi and a commander with the kurdish led syrian defense forces told fox news the kurds also had an informant inside the compound during the raid and the state department hasta acknowledged the kurds played a key role in the operation, though u.s. officials they the raid itself was conducted solely by the u.s. military. al-baghdadi was killed after he fled down a dead end tunnel with three children and detonated a suicidee vest. his had remained intact allowing u.s. commandos to use biometrics, facial recognition and near instant dna analysis to
5 p.m. saturday evening, eight american helicopters were carrying as many as 100 u.s. special operations forces. iraq and flew for 70 minutes across syria. the pilots flew low to avoid detection but came under fire during the flight returning fire as they went. their destination was a compound in western syria. according to president trump, the area had been under surveillance for a few weeks. we learned today an informant inside isis told the kurdish led syrian democratic forces that the elusive isis leader was hiding out and provided a piece of underwear and a blood sample that was used in a dna test to confirm his identity before the raid took place. the aim was to capture him and if we couldn t capture him, then of course we were going to kill him. reporter: when they arrived the helicopters began firing on the buildings allowing the soldiers and their canines to
relevant. this is a group with resources. it s not like al qaeda and iraq was ten years ago when it was decimated. with that many fighters, 14,000, 18,000 with weapons. followers around the world including some who don t go to the places to fight on the battlefield. they have the potential 58 to do something. i would be surprised if we don t see some dramatic activity over the next few months. the pullout of u.s. forces from along the turkish border and that part of syria, what sort of an impact do you think it had on this operation. the thing that struck me is apparently this information, at least in part, came from a source that kurdish fighters have. i mean, that could have disrupted this operation entirely. i mean, we don t know if it delayed the operation or if they had to rush to conduct the
majeure. he was killed on sunday on which the kurdish led syrian democratic forces played a huge role. a short time ago, senate democratic leader chuck schumer said that senators would get a briefing on the raid tomorrow from defense secretary mark esper and general mark milley. in the wake of baghdadi s death, syrian kurdish forces say they re increasing security at prisons and detention facilities where tens of thousands of isis fighters and supporters are being held. joining me to take a closer look at what comes next is a former fbi counterterrorism agent and the founder of the n and ceo of the soufan group which provides intelligence security forces to governments and multinational organizations and is the author of anatomy of terror, from the death of bin laden to the rise of the islamic state. i think now that we understand that american capability is powerful and that can happen.
the sunk cou.s. used to provide positive identification after the raid that president trump spoke about it. how did the u.s. obtain any kind of dna information on him. remember he was held before he escaped in iraq years ago. it is possible they have some sort of bio metrics from him from that. the general, the leader of the kurdish led syrian democratic forces told your colleague that in fact this source was able to provide the information and then during the raid he was there and the u.s. was able to distract him out safely at the end of the raid. there were initial reports that u.s. forces called out the individual by name. it does fit into the narrative we are now beginning to flush out more and more of the details. courtney, i want to ask you about president trump s remark about baghdadi himself wh