A senior Pentagon official has briefed on the matter in an interview with Newsweek that a "high value ISIS (Daesh) target" - believed to be Baghdadi - was targeted during a top-secret operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on Saturday, according to Tehran-based Press TV.
The senior Pentagon official told Newsweek that a brief firefight happened when US forces entered the compound, but then Baghdadi killed himself by detonating a suicide vest.
According to Pentagon sources, two Baghdadi's wives were killed in the raid, but no children were harmed.
The apparent attack on Baghdadi came after Trump announced on October 6 that the US would be withdrawing its forces from northeastern Syria, clearing the path for an expected Turkish incursion into the region.
Three days later, Turkey launched the offensive with the aim of purging the northern Syrian regions near its border of US-backed Kurdish militants.
Trump, later, however, rowed back on the withdrawal decision, announcing that a contingent of US special forces would be left in Syria to control its oil fields.
The Pentagon announced Thursday that the US will deploy troops to "protect oil fields" in northeast Syria with the help of Kurdish militants.
MNA/PR
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