The Pentagon on Wednesday provided new details about the nighttime raid against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, including details about other ISIS fighters killed in the raid.
Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the four-star chief of Central Command who ran the details of the operation from his headquarters in Tampa, Fla. revealed that five more ISIS fighters were killed during the raid after members of Delta Force encountered them wearing suicide vests, as USA Today reported.
McKenzie’s statements came around the same time Pentagon officials released a series of videos captured during the Baghdadi raid.
Laying out the timeline of the raid, McKenzie said he briefed President Donald Trump on the Friday leading up to the Delta Force assault and told Trump about the potential risks associated with such a raid.
McKenzie issued orders for the raid around 9 a.m. eastern time and the Delta Force team departed on an hour-long flight to Baghdadi’s compound in the Idlib province of northwest Syria. The compound was reportedly within four miles of the Turkish border.
Apache attack helicopters reportedly escorted the Delta Force team which flew in on CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters. Those Apache helicopters provided covering fire, taking out fighters attempting to shoot down the transport helicopters.
Advanced U.S. fighter jets and drones also circled overhead, viewing the scene of the rapid Delta Force assault.
The special operations force blew holes in the compound’s walls. Upon entering the compound, the elite team reportedly encountered and quickly killed five ISIS fighters, including four women and one man.
McKenzie said the fighters were wearing suicide vests and would not comply with demands shouted in Arabic, nor did they respond to warning shots, leading the assault force to kill the fighters who were displaying “hostile intent.”
McKenzie said militants from a separate group not related to Baghdadi’s fighters were also killed during the operation.
In the course of the attack, Baghdadi took two children hostage before running to a tunnel to hide from the assaulting force. According to USA Today, McKenzie confirmed those children were under the age of 12. Baghdadi ultimately killed himself and those two children with his own suicide bomb.
Eleven other children were rescued during the raid.
The special operations team also captured two ISIS fighters and other ISIS intelligence documents found in the compound.
McKenzie confirmed reports that none of the special operations team were killed, though one U.S. working dog on the mission sustained injuries from an electrical wire. That dog, a Belgian Malinois, is a four-year veteran of the special operations team that has been on as many as 50 missions. The injured dog has reportedly returned to active duty.
Delta Force members initiated an airstrike against Baghdadi’s compound following the raid. The airstrike may have denied ISIS sympathizers the opportunity to treat his compound as some form of shrine to the deceased ISIS leader.
“It looks pretty much like a parking lot with large potholes,” McKenzie said of the aftermath of the airstrikes.
McKenzie said Trump’s recent decision to pull many U.S. troops from Syria did not affect the planning of the mission, which U.S. commanders planned over the course of months.
The Marine general did warn that the mission would not be the end of ISIS.
