The operation to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named after Kayla Mueller, the aid worker who was tortured to death, it has emerged.
The humanitarian, who hailed from Prescott, Arizona, was just 25-years-old when she was taken captive by the notorious terrorist organization.
She was apprehended in August 2013, after crossing the Turkish border into Syria to visit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo. She was subsequently incarcerated for 18 months, being tortured and appearing in videos uploaded by the group to social media, before being executed in 2015.
In an interview on NBC News’ 'Meet the Press' Sunday, Security Adviser Robert O’Brien stated: "One of the things that General [Mark] Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did was name the operation that took down al-Baghdadi after Kayla Mueller, after what she had suffered."
He added: "And that was something that people should know. But justice was brought to those Americans who were so brutally killed, as were others, as the president pointed out."
Watch President Trump announce the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi below:A number of military officials claim that American special forces carried out a strike in which they targeted the ISIS leader in the northern province of Idlib. According to a report by CNN, a senior US military official claimed that that al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest when attacked by Delta Force.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that helicopters were deployed near the town of Barisha, just five miles from the Turkish border, at midnight on Saturday, October 26. The choppers targeted ISIS fighters with heavy strikes for about 120 minutes, with the jihadists attempting to repel the aircraft with heavy weapons.
In an address to the nation from the White House on Sunday, October 27, President Donald Trump called Al-Baghdadi: "A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death ... He will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place."
Trump continued: "Al-Baghdadi was vicious and violent and he died in a vicious and violent way. As a coward running and crying. This raid was impeccable and could only have taken place with the acknowledgment and help of certain other nations and people. I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq and I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us."
Mueller’s body has still not been recovered.
