Assad: US operation a trick, Baghdadi may be hiding

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has cast doubt on the death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom US President Donald Trump claimed had been killed in an operation, saying he may be hiding somewhere.

Assad said in an interview with Russia's RT that the operation to kill Baghdadi was a trick, since US politics "are no different from Hollywood; it relies on the imagination. Not even science fiction, just mere imagination."

The Syrian president speculated that the Daesh leader may have been kidnapped, hidden or had his appearance surgically changed.  Trump said late last month that Baghdadi blew himself up, dying "like a dog," and "like a coward" after American forces trapped him inside a dead-end tunnel.

Russia was the first country to question the "contradictory details" of the US operation, which was also taken with a pinch of salt by many people in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere. 

"The increase in the number of direct participants and countries allegedly taking part in this operation, each with completely contradictory details, raises legitimate questions and doubts about its reality and all the more in success,” Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said this month. 

Turkey has said that Baghdadi was killed as a result of military and intelligence cooperation between Ankara and Washington.

In his interview, Assad hit out at Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describing him as the enemy of Syria.

Turkey is a key supporter of militants fighting to topple the Syrian government and has recently launched an invasion in northeastern Syria against Kurdish militants.

"We must remember that Erdogan aimed, from the beginning of the war, to create a problem between the Syrian people and the Turkish people, to make it an enemy," Assad said.

He said the Turkish army initially supported the Syrian army and “cooperated with us to the greatest possible extent, until Erdogan's coup against the Army”.

Assad also did not rule out the possibility of holding a meeting with Erdogan if national interests were at stake.

ME