US wants to bolster fight against Islamic State after its leader’s death

FILE PHOTO: A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has made what would be his first public appearance at a mosque in the centre of Iraq's second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014, in this still image taken from video. Social Media Website via Reuters

Washington/Moscow (Reuters): The United States wants to bolster a coalition fighting Islamic State in north-eastern Syria, a senior State Department official said on Monday, after the leader of the jihadi movement, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a weekend operation.

World leaders welcomed his death, but they and security experts warned that the group, which carried out atrocities against religious minorities and horrified most Muslims, remained a security threat in Syria and beyond.

The official said that President Donald Trump, by announcing the withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria on 6 October, did not suggest that Washington was abandoning the fight against Islamic State.

 “There was never an idea that we would abandon the mission of going after ISIS. ... This is a major effort that is continuing,” the official told reporters.

Foreign ministers will meet in Washington on 14 November to discuss the mission.

“The United States is determined to prevent a resurgence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and continues to work with the Global Coalition to destroy ISIS remnants and thwart its global ambitions,” the US State Department said in a statement.

It said the Washington meeting’s discussions would have a “particular focus on recent developments in northeast Syria and their relationship to stability and security of the region.”

Trump has softened his pull-out plans for Syria after a backlash from Congress, including from fellow Republicans, who say he enabled a long-threatened Turkish incursion on 9 October against Kurdish forces in Syria who had been America’s top allies in the battle against Islamic State since 2014.

US Special Forces carried out the Syrian operation in which Baghdadi killed himself and three of his children by detonating a suicide vest when he was cornered in a tunnel.

Trump said on Monday he may declassify and release part of the video taken on Saturday of the raid. The video is believed to include aerial footage and possibly footage from cameras mounted on the soldiers who stormed Baghdadi’s compound.

Trump said on Sunday that Baghdadi had died “whimpering and crying” in a raid that fulfilled the president’s top national security goal.

The United States has given the remains of Baghdadi a burial at sea and afforded him religious rites according to Islamic custom, three officials told Reuters.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to say if the United States had told Russia about the operation in advance. Trump, in announcing the operation, said Russia “treated us great” by opening up airspace it controlled for the raid.

Peskov added: “If this information is confirmed, we can talk about a serious contribution by the president of the United States to the fight against international terrorism.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said Baghdadi’s death was a major blow against Islamic State, but “the fight continues to finally defeat this terrorist organisation”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We will work with our coalition partners to bring an end to the murderous, barbaric activities of Daesh (Islamic State) once and for all.”

In Southeast Asia, an important focus for Islamic State, officials said security forces were preparing for a long battle to thwart the group’s ideology.

The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, home to some of Asia’s most organised Islamist militants, said they were braced for retaliation by Islamic State loyalists, including “lone-wolf” attacks by radicalised locals.