Trump introduces hero who cornered ISIS leader

The U.S. soldier who chased terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi until the moment of his death was a military canine. President Donald Trump tweeted a picture of the dog Monday, saying the Belgian Malinois, whose name is classified, did a “GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS.” Cornered in a tunnel, al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and three children and slightly wounding the dog. No U.S. troops were seriously hurt in the operation.

What else do we know about the raid? White House and Defense Department officials said a multiyear, interagency hunt for al-Baghdadi came together quickly when the United States received intelligence about his whereabouts late last week. Trump did not notify Democratic leaders in Congress of the raid in advance out of fears they would leak it to the press. The president announced Tuesday morning on Twitter that the U.S. military had also killed the terrorist who likely would have replaced al-Baghdadi as the head of ISIS.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report in The Sift about the last al-Baghdadi video speech, made public in April.