might argue, even now, if we are in a conversation where we wonder whether baghdadi might be dead we re trying to work out exactly what isis managed to pull off and the big failing of the west has been to try to work out where initially they came from. and part of the effectiveness of isis at preventing that conversation was to make themselves quite so horrifying, make themselves quite so disgusting to the uninformed viewers. nic, pause that thought for just a second because we do have more news here into cnn. again, i want to remind everyone that we re covering a u.s. military special operations force that went in apparently to northwestern syria to hunt down the man you see there, the isis leader, al baghdadi. cnn pentagon reporter ryan browne has more now from washington. what more are you learning, ryan? reporter: well, we re learning from two sources now that baghdadi was believed killed in this u.s. special operations raid in northwest syria. but they re still conducting the
sympathetic places to hide if you were someone like abu bakr al baghdadi, but remember, bin laden hid in abbottabad and that was right under the noses of the pakistani equivalent of west point, the officers training college. so remember that he could have been anywhere frankly in northwestern syria hiding out in a farmhouse without a phone sign signal, but it would appear more likely that he would choose that kind of place to feel more secure. and that brings us to the question of the nature of this raid and i think frankly given the sensitivity of the target, the sensitivity of the area, highly unlikely the americans would broadcast their intentions even to a nato ally like turkey. you ve got to bear in mind, paula, we ve seen for u.s. officials, for u.s. soldiers who d been working in the fight against isis over the past years, and they d been hiding out in kind of shacks and ditches frankly for a long period of time in this dirty messy fight alongside the syrian kurds to kick back t
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
he may have ignited himself with a suicide vest, in typical isis fashion. the wider strategic issues remain, with continuing fighting going on between the turkish-backed militias and the syrian democratic forces who work so hard with u.s. allies to get rid of the so-called islamic state, from this entire region. you make a good point. we know the capability of the u.s. special forces and to function, even from the troops there, on the ground. it was a month ago, in september, that he was targeting that area. he had the prisoners, the isis prisoners and their families. it seemed like al baghdadi to
games at the university of iowa. well busch beer and venmo agreed to match the donations and the total is $60,000 for the hospital and he ll keep the campaign going until the end of the month. a little good flews to send you on your way to the lead with jake tapper which starts right now. a new man in the president s ear to help decide the next step with iran. the lead starts right now. breaking news, president trump names a new national security adviser and he turns up the heat on iran. and does the u.s. government claims new evidence may show iran has launched the missiles that blew up a saudi oil field. also breaking today, possible terrorist ties. prosecutors say an airline mechanic accused of sabotaging a passenger jet had a graphic isis video on his phone and that is just the beginning. plus, stonewalled. america s intelligence chief denies congress a look at an urgent whistleblower complaint as mandated by law.