even then, in the presence of a small number. this is the moment at friday prayers and a freshly conquered mosul, al baghdadi, creator of one of the most successful and inhuman terrorist networks in human history, chose to reveal himself. before the infamy of this pulpit, he spent a decade rising quietly. a ph.d. student said to like football, his records show a capture of forces in 2004, near fallujah. and held for years at u.s. camp bucca. it was there, one expert that knew him, that he turned. al baghdadi was not cruel or radical at the time. he wanted to fight the americans. he leaned towards sectarian violence in bucca, a school where he met such iraqis that filled his head with ideas.
victory. there s no other way even america s critics can deny the fact. an extraordinary victory for u.s. intelligence gathering and the military reach here. bear in mind because this occurred at the weakest part of the campaign, where president trump s own orders had them pulled back when the job had yet to be finished. it does appear with the death of al baghdadi, that this is not finished, but its chapter has come to a close. they will have to find new leadership, a new guise, and will have to explain this to occ occurs. they possibly know an evacuation plan. the leader of isis appears to be death. he gave birth to and promoted the sickening creed that cast so many innocent lives. his face in public, only once.
hours ahead. and the key issue is, if it was idlib, that is an area controlled by a pro-turkish militia. but mostly, it is al qaeda there. that s been little doubt. it mixes millions of civilians who have been running to idlib for shelter. how did the leader of a competing franchise, al baghdadi, seek shelter in the territorial homeland? we don t know. how the u.s. came to find him there and how this was planned and how it came together in a matter of days. nick, stand by for us, as we go to bob baer as we analyze this, as well.
i m paula newton at cnn center in atlanta. we continue to follow the news that isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi is believed to have been killed in the northwest province of idlib. that nighttime video that we re all looking at right now, was apparently shot by syrian activists, of a military operation, as it got under way near the turkish border. cnn cannot confirm that it was part of that raid targeting al baghdadi. a u.s. defense official tells cnn that al baghdadi apparently detonated a suicide vest, as
bob, of course, the video we just saw and what nick was saying there. someone was eye balling him in some way, shape or form. we saw the russians be confused in years prior, hoping they had killed al baghdadi in an air strike, that turned out not to be true. does this surprise you? one is the location, right? this would have had to have been dema commandos, boots on the ground doing this. it doesn t surprise me at all, paula. in a raid like this, it s uniform. maxim maximum violence. they came in with a lot of forces. they came in with total