U.S. military kills ISIS leader

The parents of an American woman slain by Islamic State praised President Donald Trump for the military raid that killed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, over the weekend. ISIS captured Kayla Mueller in 2013 in Aleppo, Syria. Al-Baghdadi was believed to have personally tortured and raped her before her reported death in 2015. On Sunday, her father, Carl Mueller, said he didn’t think anything would have stopped Trump “from getting this guy.”

How did the U.S. military get al-Baghdadi? The Pentagon began planning the operation two weeks ago after gaining intelligence on the top terrorist’s location. Eight military helicopters flew over Russian- and Syrian-controlled territory before landing at a secret ISIS compound. As U.S. special operations forces bore down, al-Baghdadi fled into a dead-end tunnel, where he detonated a suicide vest. The explosion killed him, and the United States confirmed his identity with a DNA test on-site. More than 50 U.S. military personnel took part in the operation, and none suffered any serious injuries.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report in WORLD magazine on the Mueller family’s search for answers about their daughter’s captivity.