How US gunships cornered ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Operation Obliteration: How US gunships cornered ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before he 'dragged three children with him into a dead-end tunnel and detonated a suicide belt' - as Donald Trump said he watched live on TV link 'like a movie'
He may have been the world's most wanted terrorist and the supremo of global jihad, but Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was all but a mythical figure to those hunting him.
Known as 'The Invisible Sheikh' – by virtue of the mask he wore to address his commanders – he nurtured the lowest of profiles, eschewing the showmanship of fellow jihadi leaders who paid the price by making themselves vulnerable to tracking by intelligence services.
Indeed, he made only two video appearances during his lifetime – until yesterday, that is, when US Special Forces apparently recorded him blowing himself up in northwestern Syria.
For five years, Al-Baghdadi – a nom de guerre, his real name was Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri – led the most barbaric terrorist outfit the modern world has known.