Page 124 - Caliphate News Today

So-called caliphate, collapsed in on itself. mows up, free from their grip in july. isis reduced to a tiny slip of land on the arky-syrian border. hateful. still capable of inspiring barbaric insanity. now, without his figurehead, a man willing to lead his followers to death, but only from the shadows. >> right now we want to go to ben lead man following the developments and to talk about what this signifies that al baghdadi is very likely killed and how it may impact isis moving forward. >> rep...

Personality until he actually made that public appearance at the very beginning of the so-called caliphate in july of 2014 at that mosque in mosul. he was an unknown entity for most people. not just in the broader muslim world, but in iraq itself. unlike osama bin laden who he led the regime against the soviet occupation against afghanistan. i covered the final battle against the so-called physical caliphate. we spoke with dozens of captured isis fighters and their wives and their children. and ...

But even before the public announcement, he informed members of the intelligence committee and key members of congress what was going on and he had shared that information with congress beforehand. >> but how do you see this moment in the battle against terror? >> well, i think its great that baghdadi was taken out. you know, he had portrayed himself as being in the lineage of mohammed, that he was destined and proclaimed to be the leader of the new caliphate. he actually energized a lot of fore...

Force could do this a covert operation, get into western syria. there is no anti-aircraft to speak of. they could do it stealthily and get in. you know, but i think what were seeing is pretty much the defeat of islamic groups. and its a matter of time before syria is carved up between turkey, russia, and iran. and you know, these groups, they were very violent and they have obviously failed, you know, at the very least to set up a caliphate or any other form of government. its the end, pretty cl...

Ryan, i know youll continue to keep us up to date with this. please come back to us if you have any more information as this operation is ongoing in northwest syria. i now want to bring in bob baer who of course has been following this story with us. bob, in terms of the way youve been analyzing this for us really over the last few years since al baghdadi took the pulpit there in mosul and declared his caliphate, how significant would this be if they believed they at least know his location now ...

Predictable. the area around idlib is still controlled by islamic groups that sympathize with him if not islamic state groups. so the story sounding plausible. but if the presidents going to go live tomorrow morning at 9:00, theyre pretty sure that they got the guy or they know where he is. >> that they know where he is, which of course is significant. and bob, if you could talk to us a little about that. how many times have we been down this road before, where there has been intelligence that t...

Terror like a virus that we have not seen. is there any sense, though, that again, isis can reconstitute itself at least in that way, even if the issue of the caliphate is now perhaps gone? i have been very struck by the reporting that you and others at cnn have brought bus the defiance, the very defiance of those isis fighters even if they are in prison right now. and of course there are reports that where you are in iraq, that isis continues to try to reconstitute itself. >> reporter: yeah, i ...

Which was formerly the islamic state of iraq. they have this extraordinary youtube video they showed their militants breaking down the befrm that acted as the border between iraq and syria essentially saying this is our caliphate, this is the area between iraq and syria which we now control. back then it was a tiny amount of land but it moved very fast over time with baghdadis leadership. because of the nature of how that organization worked, nobody knows exactly what shots he was calling. nobod...

Cross-legged looking reasonably healthy. if you imagine his isis fighters at that particular time a lot of them stuck in barghouz dealing with the last bloody emace yailted chapter of isis under intense fire not having enough food. there he was quite rotund, quite jovial and seeming to dispense orders about the various wilayat he felt -- thats sort of the phrase for regions of the islamic caliphate and asking how they were going, suggesting a global organization. now, the important part about ba...

After skpiisis and other terror. this is what he said. >> al baghdadi has been on the run for many years long before i took office. but at my direction, as commander in chief of the united states, we obliterated his caliphate 100% in march of this year. todays events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining isis terrorists to their brutal end. that also goes for other terrorist organizations. >> so, nick, how does the presidents decision to pull out u.s. troops out of s...