Washington (CNN) — The Pentagon released newly declassified video and images Wednesday of the raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that shows US forces taking small arms fire from multiple locations as their helicopters approached the compound.
Video from an overhead drone also shows the commandos approaching Baghdadi’s compound and aerial strikes carried out by US F-15 fighter jets and MQ-9 Reaper Drones to blow up the site once it was cleared.
The commander of US Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, said the DNA used to confirm Baghdadi’s identity was from samples collected during his previous detention at Camp Bucca in Iraq.
McKenzie told reporters that he could not confirm that Baghdadi was “whimpering and crying” in his final moments as President Donald Trump claimed in his televised address on Sunday.
He also said the US forces withdrawal from Syria was not a “limiting factor” in the raid, and that it had nothing to do with the timing, which was determined “given the totality of the intelligence… and the other factors that would affect the raid force going in and coming out.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
