President Announces "Something Big Happened;" Will Make Statement Sunday at 9 am ET;
Rumors Say That US Forces Killed Al Qaeda in Iraq Leader, then ISIS Leader and Declaring "The Caliphate," Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

Corrected: 9 in the morning Sunday, not 9 at night.

Al-Baghdadi was the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorists killing US troops in Iraq. He also declared himself Caliph.

This is the second biggest terrorist leader in the War on Terror, second only to Osama bin Ladin.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria on Saturday, according to a senior US defense official and a source with knowledge. The final confirmation is pending while DNA and biometric testing is conducted, both sources tell CNN.

The defense official said it appears that Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest during the raid.

The raid was carried out by special operations commandos, a source familiar with the operation told CNN.

The CIA assisted in locating the ISIS leader, the defense official said.

And yet we lost the entire War Against ISIS in the past ten days. Sad!

You need some kind of claim of lineage from the line of Caliphs and supposedly al-Baghadadi had that. Not just anyone can claim to be a Caliph credibly.

There's not a lot of people who can now step in to say, "I'm the Caliph." Al-Baghdadi is (was) special in that way. Taking him out, if we did do so, is more than just taking out a top terrorist; it's also taking one of the only people on the planet who has some plausible claim of descent from a Caliph and is also a terrorist leader.

Wanted to add: There is a claim by some Muslims that if there is a Caliph declared, then it is the duty of all Muslims to join it, including as jihadis.

This was a major part of ISIS' propaganda for recruitment, that the fact of a (claimed) Caliphate meant all Muslims were obligated to come fight for it.

But if there's no Caliph, there is no such obligation.

So al-Baghdadi had a tremendous value to the terrorist state as a cult figure. Again, one that is not replaced merely by advancing the next man up the chain.

Alas, some in the US might be affected.

Expect the media to start playing the "Who? Al-Baghdadi? Never heard of him" game.

I also expect the media to make a big stink about having to carry That Man's live message. They'll start claiming that because we already have reports of what the news is, they shouldn't have to carry That Man's address.

Then they'll report it as little as possible, and start saying things like "Al-Baghdadi's second-in-command is said to be a better leader. In a way, Trump has only strengthened ISIS by killing al-Baghdadi..."

This just in:

Rumors Say That US Forces Killed Al Qaeda in Iraq Leader, then ISIS Leader and Declaring "The Caliphate," Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi&bodytext=Corrected: 9 in the morning Sunday, not 9 at night. Al-Baghdadi was the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorists killing US troops in Iraq. He also declared himself Caliph. This is the second biggest terrorist leader in the War on...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace of Spades at 02:03 AM

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