US President Donald Trump said Monday he is weighing releasing to the public video footage of the raid that led to the death of Daesh’s former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“WE ARE THINKING ABOUT IT”
Asked about the matter by reporters before departing the White House, Trump said “we’re thinking about it.” “We may,” he said. “We may take certain parts of it and release it, yes.”
Trump announced al-Baghdadi’s death Sunday following a special operations mission into northwestern Syria. The special operations mission included eight helicopters descending on the compound where he had been holed up amid gunfire that Trump said was “immediately terminated” by US gunships.
US forces then unloaded from the helicopters and closed in on the building, blowing a hole in its side out of concern that the main door would be booby-trapped.
The US president said he “got to watch much of” the raid in real-time from the Situation Room, asserting no U.S. forces were lost in the operation “while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him.”