Turkey coordinated with US before attack on Daesh head

ANKARA

Turkey exchanged information and coordinated with the U.S. before an American operation to reportedly kill a terrorist chief in northwestern Syria, Turkey's National Defense Ministry said Sunday.

“Prior to the U.S. Operation in Idlib Province of Syria last night, information exchange and coordination between the military authorities of both countries took place,” the ministry said on Twitter.

The leader of the terror group Daesh, also known as ISIS, whose whereabouts have been unknown for some time, is dead, reported U.S. magazine Newsweek early Sunday.

Citing two anonymous sources from the Pentagon and the army, it said the U.S. military conducted a special operations raid against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Idlib, northwestern Syria.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, in apparent reference to the operation, "Something very big has just happened!"

"Trump approved the mission nearly a week before it took place," said Newsweek.

A Pentagon source told Newsweek that Baghdadi was "dead pending verification."

Baghdadi's whereabouts and status have long been a mystery, and multiple claims have been made that he was killed in various battlefields in Iraq or Syria.