Report: Killin’ caliph down

The AP reports at the top of its long story:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, is believed dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press late Saturday that al-Baghdadi was targeted in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. The official said confirmation that the IS chief was killed in an explosion is pending. No other details were available. The official was not authorized to discuss the strike and spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Donald Trump teased a major announcement, tweeting Saturday night that “Something very big has just happened!” A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, would say only that the president would be making a “major statement” at 9 a.m. ET Sunday.

As the AP suggests, President Trump previewed the pending announcement via Twitter last night. We will have to tune in later this morning.

Newsweek confirms that the killin’ caliph has indeed been terminated with extreme prejudice. Let it be. May the killin’ caliph rot in hell.

UPDATE: Here is President Trump’s stunning press conference. Baghdadi was taken out by an extensive special forces operation analogous to the one that killed bin Laden:

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