Barisha, northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, is killed in a US special forces operation. The area is controlled by Sunni militias, including Al-Qaeda, a rival of ISIS. Al-Baghdadi’s location is known thanks to intelligence gathered in cooperation with the Kurds and Iraqis. The Americans inform the Syrians and Russians, without revealing the nature of the mission. They arrive with eight helicopters and several dozen soldiers. They enter by breaching walls to avoid any booby traps set on the doors, accompanied by a robot and several dogs trained for the purpose. Al-Baghdadi escapes into a tunnel, taking three of his children with him, hunted by dogs set after him by the special forces. Then, in a dead-end alley, he detonates his explosive belt, killing his three children as well. The tunnel’s ceiling partially collapses. The Americans analyze the mutilated body’s DNA and identify it as al-Baghdadi. They seize intelligence material and then destroy the site.
