Leaders around the globe have reacted to the death of Islamic State group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who left behind a horrific trail of beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in his five years as the self-proclaimed “caliph” of Iraq and Syria.
US President, Donald Trump confirmed Baghdadi’s death in a nighttime US raid in northwestern Syria, declaring in televised address that he died “like a dog” when he said, “He ignited his vest, killing himself… He died after running into a dead end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.”
Meanwhile Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group, he said on Twitter that the killing of Daesh’s ringleader marks a turning point in the joint fight against terrorism, adding that Turkey would “continue to support anti-terror efforts -— as it has done in the past.
British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson also said on Twitter, “The death of Baghdadi is an important moment in our fight against terror but the battle against the evil of Daesh is not yet over. We will work with our coalition partners to bring an end to the murderous, barbaric activities of Daesh once and for all.”
However, in a statement by Russian defence ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, he said, “The defence ministry does not have reliable information about the actions of the US army in the Idlib ‘de-escalation’ zone… concerning the umpteenth ‘death’” of Baghdadi as there were “contradictory details” which raised “legitimate questions and doubts about the success of this American operation”.
In the same vein, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter, saying, “The death of al-Baghdadi is a hard blow against Daesh (IS) but it is just a stage. The fight will continue with our partners in the international coalition to ensure that the terror organisation is definitively defeated. It is our priority.”
Speaking on it resolve to join fight against terrorism, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, “This reflects the united resolve of the free countries led by the United States to fight the forces of terror, the terror organisations and the terrorist states.
“This is an important milestone, but it’s part of a longer battle which we must win,” he added.
