jonathan schroden is an analyst at the military intelligence think tank cna. he explained haji abdullah s significance to the islamic state group. sure, so al qurashi was the leader of the islamic state, the central part of the islamic state which is largely based in syria these days, but also has tendrils into iraq. and so, he was the leader that took over after the death of al baghdadi in another us special operations forces raid about two and a half years ago. his death today will likely affect the islamic state in two ways, one short and one long. the immediate impact is likely to be some amount of disruption of the group s activities. any time an organisation undergoes a leadership change, especially a forced one, there will be some amount of disruption. that said, i expect that disruption to be relatively short lived as isis is a very well organised terrorist group, and they ve likely got some form of a succession plan
the assault was designed to capture or kill. the team returned to a staging base. reporter: the first he classified images of the special operations forces raid in which he died by detonating a suicide vest. the pentagon confirming for the first time the raid was staged from inside syria. helicopters using an unknown location in the hours leading up to the mission. this video shows army special operators approaching the compound from two sides and this shows close air support against isis fighters trying to engage the american forces. the pentagon even releasing video that shows the moment the compound where he was hiding blue up. in the aftermath of it burning in the night. the commander of centcom says every aspect of the raid was planned in minute detail. the plan was significantly more complex than that and designed to avoid detection by isis. they confirmed there were 11
the team returned to its staging base. tonight, they receive the first declassified images of the special operations forces raid in which baghdadi died by detonating a suicide bed the raid was sage from inside syria, using an unknown location as an operating base leading up to the mission and get this video shows army special operators approaching the compound from two sides. this shows close air support against isis fighters trying to engage the american forces. the pentagon even releasing video that shows the very moment the compound where baghdadi was hiding blew up. in the aftermath of it burning in the night. the commander of satcom says every aspect of the raid was planned in minute detail. i can assure you the plan was a significantly more complex than that, designed to avoid detection by isis. they also confirmed 11 children at the compound where baghdadi was hiding and he
going to be a delicate dance moving forward. lastly, a u.s. special operations forces raid in syria launched from iraq essentially took down the money manager of isis. were able to kill him and app ri end his wife. this is a special operationsz force. it started with gunfire led to hand to hand combat. we have no formal use of force in syria yet young men and women are put directly into harm s way. is this the future of war against isis? special operations forces paired with american air strikes in the hopes sunni tribal groups in iraqi army can soon do something? that s the model. gathering that intelligence from the isis compound in eastern syria will get us information we can go attack the rest of the network. that s how we made advances against the network in iraq. that s how we made advances against al qaeda core.