ryan, i know you ll continue to keep us up to date with this. please come back to us if you have any more information as this operation is ongoing in northwest syria. i now want to bring in bob baer who of course has been following this story with us. bob, in terms of the way you ve been analyzing this for us really over the last few years since al baghdadi took the pulpit there in mosul and declared his caliphate, how significant would this be if they believed they at least know his location now inside syria? well, for the trump administration this would be a great breakthrough after the humiliation of leaving syria the way he did and returning. this foreign policy has been a disaster, but if we can actually grab or kill baghdadi, it would be an enormous success for donald trump. the fact that he could have been or is in northwest syria is
al baghdadi has been in hiding for the past five years. ever since he stood in the great mosque in mosul, iraq in 2014 and proclaimed the isis caliphate. cnn pentagon reporter ryan brown has the latest from washington. and suffice it to say, ryan, these are the kinds of tips certainly that those special forces look for. what more do you know about the operation as it s under way? reporter: well, very few details about the actual operation have become known at this time. of course that s not untypical in such a high-risk, high-value target operation such as this. now, it s interesting that it took place in northwest syria, where actually the u.s. military does not have much of a presence. of course there s been a large debate in washington recently about the military presence in syria, but that s mostly in the country s east. in the northwest there are actually very little u.s. military presence on the ground. and so the ability to find intelligence on baghdadi given the variety of gr
detonated a suicide vest. president trump is expected to make actual an announcement regarding foreign policy in the next few hours. al baghdadi has been in hiding since 2014, when he stood, you re looking at him right there, at the great mosque in mos mosul, iraq, and announced a caliphate. it s important you bring us the context from the border and what s gone on in the last couple weeks, in terms of u.s. foreign policy and how so much has changed on the ground? a radical couple of weeks, with the turkish incursions, the militia groups and other jihadi elements to what the turks want to do is to establish what they
only lexus asks questions like these, because we believe the most amazing machines are inspired by you. experience the rewards of our curiosity. welcome back to cnn center in atlanta, where we continue to follow breaking news on the manhunt for isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi. sources tell cnn that al baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a u.s. military raid in northwest syria. a u.s. official says president donald trump is expected to make an announcement related to foreign policy in the coming hours. that s all they ve told us. al baghdadi has been in hiding, we ll remind you, since 2014 when he stood right there, the video you re looking at, stood in that great mosque in mosul and proclaimed an isis caliphate with great consequences not just
prisoner, possibly if that were to occur or eventual trial would have been a massive complication for the united states juridically but also for him in terms of being humiliated in that way. we saw bin laden was shot dead by special forces when they broke into the top floor of that villa, but it may be if you re hearing directly here these reports turn out to be correct that baghdadi chose to remove that whole part of the equation. i mean, obviously in a raid of this nature you have substantial warning as the special forces begin to move in that they re likely coming for you. and perhaps it may have been his desire to show a final message, possibly more honorable in the twisted creed of isis to take your own life in the face of the enemy than necessarily find yourself captured. we ve seen ourselves, our cameraman when we were watching the onslaught against mosul, when he filmed an isis fighter coming out of a ditch opening fire on the kurdish peshmerga in front of the him, finding hims