**Reconstruction of the "intrepid and dangerous night attack" that ended with the most wanted terrorist, cornered in a dead end tunnel, detonating his explosive vest** On Friday night, Donald Trump celebrated the tenth anniversary of his daughter Ivanka and Jared Kushner's wedding at Camp David. It was a "beautiful dinner," the president tweeted the next morning, with "a small group of family and friends." On Saturday, he went to one of his golf courses in Virginia to play some holes with Senators Lindsey Graham and David Perdue, and the commissioner of the baseball league Rob Manfred, who was in the area to attend the series baseball world cup, to which the Washington Nationals first came. The capital vibrated with the sporting event. Nothing suggested that, 10,000 kilometers away, the details for the operation against Abubaker al Bagdadi, leader of the Islamic State (ISIS), were finalized , the most wanted terrorist in the United States. But the president knew from Thursday that there was a "high probability" that Al Bagdadi was in a house near Barisha, a town west of Aleppo, in the province of Idlib, in northwestern Syria. The Americans had been watching him for days, following a clue provided by a repentant militant of ISIS, who had become an informant of the Kurdish forces, according to the testimony of an American officer gathered by The Washington Post. The informant had won the confidence of the Americans since he was contacted this summer, according to the same sources, and the information he provided about the whereabouts of Al Bagdadi, contrasted with other intelligence sources, was considered sound. On Friday, according to the Associated Press, Trump already had the different military options on top of his Oval Office desk. On Saturday morning, Washington time, the Administration knew, according to the secret services, that the time had come to act. At 4:18 p.m. Saturday, the commander in chief arrived at the White House. Three quarters of an hour later, dressed in a blue suit and tie and accompanied, among others, by Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, entered the S ituation Room to monitor what Trump himself described as "a fearless and dangerous night attack." An operation baptized with the name of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old American cooperator kidnapped, tortured and killed in 2015 by ISIS. Shortly after, after midnight in the Middle East, a team from the Delta Force, a special operations unit of the United States Army, took off from Al-Asad base in western Iraq. It was made up of at least eight aircraft, including twin-engine CH-47 heavy-duty transport helicopters. Less than one hundred troops were on the ground, according to Esper, and there were others involved in support work. They flew over airspace controlled by Iraq, Turkey and Russia (which has troops deployed in Syria), countries that had been informed, without going into details, that an operation was going to be carried out. It was a 70-minute flight in which the soldiers, according to the president, responded to fire from "random people who do not like helicopters." Inhabitants of Idlib villages described to the Associated Press how they saw the helicopters approaching the horizon, flying low. Upon arrival, according to Esper, the soldiers tried to call Al Bagdadi in the hope that he would surrender. But the terrorist remained inside. Instead, two adults and 11 children came out, an American officer told The Washington Post . Then an explosion was heard. Trump explained that the soldiers, fearful that the entrance to the building had a deadly trap attached, opened a "beautiful hole" in one of the walls and entered, accompanied by trained dogs, into the complex where they knew Al Baghdadi was hiding. The terrorist leader, wearing an explosive vest, accompanied by at least three children, escaped through a network of bunkers and tunnels that crossed the subsoil of the complex. Persecuted by the soldiers and the dogs, he ran "into a dead end tunnel, sobbing, screaming and crying all the way", in Trump's words, and "detonated his vest, killing himself and the three children." “He died like a dog. He died as a coward, ”the president added. In the situation room, Trump and the rest of the congregates contemplated the operation "absolutely perfectly" thanks to a live video signal. It was "like watching a movie," Trump said. The explosion left Al Baghdadi's body mutilated and partially buried under the rubble. The soldiers had to dig and remove obstacles to access their remains. Despite this, elite troops claimed to have identified Al Bagdadi. "There wasn't much left, but there were substantial pieces that recovered," Trump explained. At 7:15 p.m. Washington time, soldiers confirmed the terrorist's death, O'Brien explained. “100% confidence, fat prize. We have it. Change, ”said the mission commander by phone, according to the counselor. At 19.23, unable to contain the emotion, the president tweeted a clue about the successful military operation: "Something very big has just happened!" The soldiers were prepared to perform forensic work. They carried DNA samples of their target. Genetic tests were carried out in situ and on Sunday morning the results were already definitive, according to an official quoted by The Washington Post. There were no US casualties. Only one dog, described by the president as "beautiful" and "talented," was injured. The soldiers were not damaged, according to Trump, although Esper said two soldiers suffered minor injuries but "have already returned to service." Five enemy combatants died inside the compound and others outside, according to a White House statement. Al Baghdadi's remains, according to US officials, were processed in accordance with Muslim tradition, which requires burial in less than 24 hours. Those of at least two of their wives were left in place. They were armed with explosive vests that had not been detonated, according to the president, which made it risky to handle their bodies. US soldiers remained in the complex for about two more hours, Trump reported, and seized sensitive material about ISIS, including information about their future plans. When the troops withdrew, fighter jets threw six missiles into the house. The last refuge of the most wanted terrorist was reduced to rubble. ESPER: "OUR TROOPS WILL REMAIN THERE TO DENY ISIS ACCESS TO RESOURCES" "Despite the death of Al Baghdadi, the security situation in Syria remains complex," Mark Esper, secretary of defense, said Monday at a press conference. "Multiple actors, state and non-state, continue to fight for control of resources in the country," he added. The Pentagon chief has said that the US mission in Syria "is not to act as a police officer in every dispute", but remains "the same" as when operations began in 2014: "Allow a lasting defeat of ISIS." The "recent repositioning of forces" in the region, he explained, "is aimed at achieving that mission and offering options to the president." Therefore, Esper has confirmed, they will maintain control of the oil fields in northeastern Syria. In the last days, Pentagon officials have convinced the president, who announced the withdrawal of US troops from the country, to leave at least several hundred soldiers there. "We will never allow a rebuilt ISIS to take those deposits," the president tweeted Thursday. "These deposits provided ISIS with a financial resources valve to finance its terror," Esper said Monday. "Our troops will remain there to deny access to ISIS to those vital resources." https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/10/28/estados_unidos/1572281733_305574.html