Macron warns ISIS leader’s death not the end of the group
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French President Emmanuel Macron has gone on Twitter to warn that the death of ISIS group founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a knock for the extremist organization, but not its end.
Macron said Sunday the U.S. raid that killed the leader who sought to establish a new Islamic “caliphate” across Syria and Iraq was a “blow against Daesh,” using the French term for the group.
But he said, “it’s only a step” and “the fight continues with our partners in the international coalition so that the terrorist organization is definitely defeated.”
Al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of ISIS who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday.
Iran’s information minister says the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a U.S. military operation is no big deal. Iranian Information Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, tweeted: “Not a big deal, you just killed your creature” (accusing the United States, its longtime foe, of creating Islamic State). The Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei tweeted: “The killing of Baghdadi will not end Daesh (Islamic State) and its ideology … which was created and flourished with the help of regional petrodollars.”
Russia’s reaction came through Major-General Igor Konashenkov, quoted by RIA news agency, as saying : “The Russian Ministry of Defence does not have reliable information on the operation by U.S. servicemen… on yet another ‘elimination’ of former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of upper house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, to Interfax news agency:
“… Last respects have been paid to al-Baghdadi at least five times in the past. (Also) countering terrorism is a much more difficult task than the physical destruction of its leaders, even the most irreconcilable.”
