As Daesh leader Baghdadi dies, a journalist hits Trump with the only question really worth asking

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh (Isis/Isil), has died during a US-led raid in Syria.
Amid the news, a journalist presented Donald Trump with the only question really worth asking.
Bittersweet
US ally Turkey recently invaded the largely-Kurdish areas of northern Syria (aka Rojava). These were key in defeating Daesh in Syria. Over 11,000 Rojavan fighters died in the war. In recent weeks, however, Turkish-led invaders have faced accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes against these communities, with their attacks killing hundreds of civilians, displacing at least 300,000 people, and allowing hundreds of Daesh supporters to escape detention.
As Trump announced Baghdadi’s death, he also mentioned that Rojavan forces had provided “information that turned out to be helpful” in the raid. And with this in mind, journalist Mehdi Hasan asked a question that was surely on many people’s lips:
Can a reporter right now please ask Donald Trump this:
“To clarify, Mr President, at exactly the same time you were abandoning the Syrian Kurds to be slaughtered, and insulting them and telling us all they weren’t at Normandy, those same Kurds were helping you find Baghdadi?”
Read on...
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 27, 2019
In short, he hit home that Trump has allowed Turkey to attack Rojavan forces even as they were helping to find Baghdadi.
Rojavan involvement
Trump said that, during the raid, Baghdadi ran into a tunnel and killed himself with an explosive vest. He also clarified that the Daesh leader had been under surveillance for several weeks. And the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of Rojava confirmed this too. Its general commander Mazloum Abdî, for example, said:
For five months there has been joint intel cooperation on the ground and accurate monitoring, until we achieved a joint operation to kill Abu Bakir al-Bagdadi.
Thanks to everybody who participate in this great mission.@realDonaldTrump#SDF#USArmy #Rojava #Baghdadi
— Mazloum Abdî مظلوم عبدي (@MazloumAbdi) October 27, 2019
SDF spokesperson Rêdûr Xelîl, meanwhile, slammed the Turkish invasion for delaying the operation by a month:
SDF spox Redur Khelil speaks at a press conference now in Heseke.
He says the operation to kill Baghdadi was achieved using information from both the SDF and American intelligence services.
"This operation was delayed by a month due to the Turkish invasion of NorthEast Syria." pic.twitter.com/7suo2H1Qlt
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) October 27, 2019
He also accused Syrian areas under Turkish occupation of harbouring Daesh “elements”:
"Those groups of gunmen who passed into Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad under Turkish sponsorship are a danger not just to this region, but to the whole world."
He says ISIS elements are sheltered and installed in regions under Turkish control.
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) October 27, 2019
NATO ally Turkey seriously hurting the fight against Daesh
Witnesses of the raid suggested it had taken place “near the town of Barisha, just 5 miles from the Turkish border”. A senior Turkish official reportedly said he had arrived there just a couple of days before the raid. But according to a senior source in the US military: “We long suspected Baghdadi was hiding in Idlib”.
Indeed, Idlib has long been a stronghold of ultra-conservative extremist groups in Syria. And in June 2019, the BBC reported that one group operating there was the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF), an alliance including “hardline Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham” (many of whose “members are sympathetic to Al Qaeda”). The NLF was reportedly “held together by Turkish leadership, as well as Turkish money, weapons and supplies”.
As Xelîl asked:
"What was Baghdadi doing there, in a region under Turkey, close to its border, under its control?", says @RedurXelil.
He says that this operation proves Turkey protects all kinds of terrorist groups, not just Baghdadi.
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) October 27, 2019
The Rojava Information Center, meanwhile, has highlighted how the Turkish-led invasion of Rojava has negatively affected the fight against Daesh:
– Three months prior to Turkish invasion saw two anti-ISIS raids per day, dropping 75% to one every two days following Turkish invasion
– Prior to invasion, the number and productivity of raids was increasing, with "near-daily" joint SDF-Coalition raidshttps://t.co/n19YGkYAQ5
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) October 27, 2019
Since 2015, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has sought to repress all of his political opponents while uniting the right by mixing conservative Islamism with right-wing nationalism. His regime has waged war on progressives both in Rojava and Turkey’s own Kurdish-majority communities, committing war crimes in the process. And in this offensive, it has joined forces with fascists and extremist groups similar to al-Qaeda and Daesh. There is also evidence of active Turkish collaboration with Daesh.
For Trump, self-interest is always the priority
Trump will milk Baghdadi’s death as much as he can. But as he does, we all need to remember how his ongoing submission to the hard-right regime in Turkey is seriously damaging the fight against Daesh. And with that realisation, we need to remember that – under his government – elitist US interests will always trump the fight against fascist terror.
Featured image and additional content via Press Association
Get involved
- Find out more about the situation, support RiseUp4Rojava and join the RiseUp4Rojava demonstrations.
- Support Women Defend Rojava.
- Learn about the campaign to Boycott Turkey.
- Get involved with your local Kurdistan solidarity group.
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6/12/16: al-Baghdadi killed in a US airstrike.
5/28/17: killed in Russian air strike.
6/11/17: killed in Syrian artillery strike.
6/29/17: Iranian leader says he’s “definitely dead.”
7/11/17: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed his death.
10/26/2019: Killed again. Baghdadi is soon going to make a speech from his mountain hideout.
Another Trump scam? Donald Trump was golfing during U.S. military raid against Baghdadi and ISIS. The raid started Saturday at 3:30 pm. Trump didn’t return to the White House until 4:18 pm. The official photo was timestamped at 5:05 pm. Something doesn’t add up! Ok who cares it’s always the same story. Terrorists. Then war. Then politicians make billions of dollars.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death “is a significant milestone in the coalition’s work to defeat Daesh, but it is not the end of the threat.” ISIS have appointed a new leader after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a daring US raid in northern Syria, according to reports. I must be reading Fake News again…. I am sure I read somewhere that America Pulled out of Syria ….. More Lies … Now they are back in again ? I wouldn’t believe anything emanating from Rump. I think when they speak about whimpering, screaming and crying they’re talking about Rump himself. My God, this dude has been killed about five times in the last 5 years. His “death” hasn’t so far sparked anything. Let’s cut the project fear crap. Da’esh are finished. How could anyone in their right mind support this fool. He’s just as bad as the isis leader. Wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that real target was not attained, it’s not the first time. The United States has confirmed Baghdadi’s death only after the DNA analysis. The question is: how did they do the analysis? Does this mean that they already had a blood sample of Baghdadi or other for comparison purposes? In this case where did they get it? It is then said that the genetic analysis takes two weeks. How did they do it in less than 3 hours?
Baghdadi’s successor is said to be Abdullah Qardash, also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari. He was chosen by Baghdadi in August to run the group’s “Muslim affairs,” according to ISIS’ official Amaq news outlet. And American outlet Newsweek reports he is now set to succeed Baghdadi as leader of the terror death cult. Little is known about him but he once served under Saddam Hussein in Iraq. There are millions of people like him to take his place one less won’t make any deference.
The tip-off on Baghdadi’s whereabouts came from one of his wives, who was held in Iraq in September. Eight helicopters were used in the night assault on his hideout near the northwestern Syrian village of Barisha, close to the Turkish border. Trump watched the operation live in the White House situation room, where his predecessor Barack Obama saw US forces killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Strange how Baghdadi’s body was disintegrated by a bomb, just like Bin Laden’s body was quickly buried at sea, America is due another 9/11. How typical of the blustering clown Trump to turn a moment of triumph into another humiliating embarrassment for the USA. The sooner this fool is impeached, thrown out of office and prosecuted for his crimes the safer the world will be. Amazing Obama didn’t show the body of bin laden either so how do we know if that’s even true. So far the leader has died 4 times don’t believe a word the media post. Cowering at the end of a ¬tunnel, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was “whimpering and crying and screaming” in the moments before his death. So why can’t we see that instead of just reading about it and expected to take your word for it 🤔….. come on its 2019 and everything is recorded in some way these days but your telling me something like this is not shared worldwide …..Funny that did the same with bin laden 🤔🤷♂️ As he so conveniently blew himself up….we are told…. there is no body to identify. But Trump will claim he did it! Can’t let Obama beat him by getting Bin Laden! According to the news, this is the sixth time he has been killed!
Trump seems to be actually encouraging retaliation by goading Baghdadi’s followers by making his death sound as humiliating as possible. “Whimpering, crying, screaming”- making it sound like he died a coward’s death will enrage ISIS even further and compel any hidden followers into acts of revenge. Trump might as well be shouting “Nah nah na nah na” at them. Does he really think that will make them say “oh wait, the man we followed was a coward and an idiot, silly me, I must stop supporting ISIS?”. To kill a man in what they believe is a war is one thing but to humiliate him is another. Someone will pay a high price for Donald’s taunts, sadly. He was “whimpering, screaming and crying”? So he died the way Trump lives. Will there be video footage this time, or just take it at face value with an alleged sea burial like OBL? Who created isis in the first place?? And now boasting for what? 🤣
Security experts now fear reprisals for the Baghdadi killing. Richard Kemp, former head of international terrorism intelligence at the Cabinet Office, said: “When bin Laden was killed, al-Baghdadi unleashed violent retaliation. Security services will now be braced for attempts to avenge his death.” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last night cautioned: “The death of Baghdadi is a significant milestone in the coalition’s work to defeat Daesh , but it is not the end of the threat.” TRUMP IS ONE DANGEROUS MAN, HE NEEDS TO GO TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. MIRROR IMAGE OF BORIS NEEDS TO GO TO PROTECT BRITISH PEOPLE. PAIR OF DICTATORS IN EACH OTHERS POCKETS. Just waiting for Corbyn & Abbott to condemn this killing.. I am pleased that they tracked down and killed this monster but I’m rather suspicious about Trumps claims about him whimpering and crying as this doesn’t seem compatible with him putting on a suicide vest and blowing himself up? Al Baghdadi retired by Al Washington and Al Washington will find replacement ASAP.
When US UK RUSSIA ISRAEL KILLED thousands and thousands of innocents in Iraq ,Afghanistan ,Libya ,Palestine, Pakistan Chechnya ,so don’t we think one of those man who lost everything in air strikes and firing by all these countries will not take revenge ? Its human nature if we anyone don’t get justice he will move for other options . People crying for western countries but they never cried for all those innocent peoples of victim countries.
JUST STOP INVADING AND OTHER COUNTRIES .we all know that all these countries were developed and were living peacefully before the invasion of US. America deals with more mentally ill white dudes with guns than they do isis. Shooting up a school is an act of terrorism, and your army hasn’t exactly seemed to prevent terrorism has it, you’re still one of the world’s worst places for school shootings so you’re living in a nation riddled with terrorism that won’t be stopping anytime soon. On the Odd occasion terrorism happens here, we don’t only retaliate but it brings our cities together. More than can be said for America. So not only are your military unprepared but as a nation. Nothing you say against anyone else means anything at all, your president is a laughing stock, North Korea and Iran have proven to the world that America and its president are just little people with a god complex.
Please tell me the difference between a bunch of Muslims killing innocent civilians, and drones sent by the West massacring entire families in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When ‘they’ kill, it’s terrorism, when ‘we’ kill, it’s necessary in order to ‘protect our way of life’. Blatant hypocrisy.
He is dead but he is going to be replaced very soon. There will be no end to it. I have a better idea, why not stop unnecessarily bombing, invading and occupying middle eastern countries ? stop overthrowing governments in that region and creating the conditions in which these groups arise and thrive then we wouldn’t need such draconian measures in the first place. This government and the previous governments policies are the reason the UK is a target for these maniacs, if anyone disagrees then please tell me why you never see the following headline “Switzerland hit by Islamic terrorism”. The government creates the conditions in which these groups arise and thrive and then further punish us by introducing laws which curtail freedom. The UK needs to stop pretending it’s still an empire and be more humble. What the west is guilty of is creating the condition from which the rise of isis has been made possible, ISIS is a direct product of the unnecessary Iraq war, without the war it most certainly would not exist. There’s no question that if you bomb the infrastructure out of another country, produce a power vacuum and annihilate all the vested interests that held that social order together, then other more meaningful social orders are going to try and fill that vacuum. The idea that you can destroy the socio-political organisation of a country and then replace it with your own idealised and artificial construct has to be one of the dumbest and most arrogant ideas of our time. That, or just a Machiavellian calculation to serve certain Western needs/interests. I can’t decide which.
In 1998, the Berlin Wall came down. By the end of 1991 the Cold War was over. The Cold War had provided the excuse for the maintenance of intelligence services, a war machine, and an industrial support service to go with it, on both sides. These multi-billion dollar organisations did not just stop and throw their staff out of a job.. They went looking for a new threat, one that would KEEP GOING. For a while during the late 1990s, as the Western country’s Treasuries were looking for ‘the peace dividend’ and cutting this military machine, the intelligence services in particular tried to sell themselves as providing police support for drug work and organised crime.
Then the World Trade Centre was attacked, and they had suddenly found their new job – a ‘War on Terror’ that, as you know, was carefully publicised as going to take ‘A LONG TIME’ to address. Now you know why that term is used so often. Of course, when it came to actually wielding weapons, It was rather pointless to attack the real terrorists. They were usually small cells of activists – in the WTC case, supported by Saudi Arabia, a ‘friendly’ nation. But it was easy enough to find a small nation that could be sold as a hotbed of terrorism and would be unable to fight back. Not, of course, North Korea. They were next to China and were developing nukes.
Now you also know why the wars were such a mess. There was no carefully thought-through expected result. The aim was to HAVE A WAR. To have a fairly safe war that could be won, and that would justify the continued existence of the Security Services, the Military and the supporting armaments companies. That is why, when Iraq was finished, there were no plans in existence for restoring the country. We are now busily trying to stoke up a reason to have another Middle East war. If we stir the pot enough, some hothead will let off another series of bombs on the London Underground, or shoot an airliner down with a missile. And the these multi-billion dollar organisations did not just stop and throw their staff out of a job.. They went looking for a new threat, one that would KEEP GOING. For a while during the late 1990s, as the Western countries Treasuries were looking for ‘the peace dividend’ and cutting this military machine, the intelligence services in particular tried to sell themselves as providing police support for drug work and organised crime.
Then the World Trade Centre was attacked, and they had suddenly found their new job – a ‘War on Terror’ that, as you know, was carefully publicised as going to take ‘A LONG TIME’ to address. Now you know why that term is used so often.
Of course, when it came to actually wielding weapons, It was rather pointless to attack the real terrorists. They were usually small cells of activists – in the WTC case, supported by Saudi Arabia, a ‘friendly’ nation. But it was easy enough to find a small nation that could be sold as a hotbed of terrorism and would be unable to fight back. Not, of course, North Korea. They were next to China and were developing nukes.
Now you also know why the wars were such a mess. There was no carefully thought-through expected result. The aim was to HAVE A WAR. To have a fairly safe war that could be won, and that would justify the continued existence of the Security Services, the Military and the supporting armaments companies. That is why, when Iraq was finished, there were no plans in existence for restoring the country.
We are now busily trying to stoke up a reason to have another Middle East war. If we stir the pot enough, some hothead will let off another series of bombs on the London Underground, or shoot an airliner down with a missile. And then we will have another good excuse to invade Syria. Or Iran. Or Libya. Or… anywhere, really…
I have a better idea, why not stop unnecessarily bombing, invading and occupying middle eastern countries ?..
What? What is the entire military-industrial complex to do now that the Cold War is over? Do you know how many millions work in the business of designing, creating and operating armaments? Do you know how many powerful people would be thrown out of work if we no longer had a need to kill random groups of people with high-tech weaponry? Do you know how much money they make by continually pretending that someone, somewhere in the world, is a direct threat to the entire fabric of Western culture, and how much they would lose if it ever got out that they were not telling the truth?
If a bunch of poor Muslim migrants can overturn Western way of life, maybe West should think twice about making their culture more creative, their economy more vigorous, their society more appealing? Western so called ethnic unicity is a concept that is completely mistaken. Europeans fled to America in millions and now they try to prevent other human beings from entering their realm of double standards???
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk