A key informant who helped lead US special forces to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi provided key information about the leader's safe house in and even produced his soiled underwear for DNA testing.
Kurdish intelligence operatives who supervised the informant passed the intelligence on to American forces before they raided Baghdadi's safe house.
The unidentified informant, an undercover security advisor to Baghdadi, was also on hand at the compound in Idlib, northwest Syria, when US Special Ops forces raided the safe house to confront the terrorist leader.
Baghdadi, 48, the elusive leader of the Islamic State, killed himself and three of his children by deploying a suicide vest as US forces stormed the compound Saturday night.
General Mazloum Abdi of Syrian Democratic Forces said the Baghdadi informant described a room-by-room layout of the terror leader's compound on the Turkish border, including the number of guards, floor plan and tunnels, reports .
The revelation of the informant comes as President Donald Trump received renewed criticism for his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, leaving the Kurds to confront a Turkish offensive on their own.
The president had praised US forces for the raid Baghdadi, who in 'his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread,' was 'terrified of the American forces bearing down on him'.
However, two intelligence officials revealed to New York Times that it was actually Syrian and Iraqi Kurds who provided the most information about Baghdadi's whereabouts, and were instrumental in bringing him down.
In fact, officials started to narrow down Baghdadi's location and plan the raid this past summer, but the operation to strike his hideout was nearly blown out of the water when Trump abruptly announced plans to withdraw American troops from northern Syria.
The bold move forced Pentagon officials to green light the night raid before their control of troops, spies, and reconnaissance aircraft was withdrawn, military, intelligence and counterterrorism officials revealed to the Times.
Those officials say that al-Baghdadi's death comes largely in spite of Trump's military leadership, with the Kurds continuing to provide information to the CIA even after Trump's announcement, which left them vulnerable to attack from an aggressive Turkish front.
The informant in Saturday's raid provided Baghdadi's dirty underpants to 'make sure (100%) that the person in question was Al Baghdadi himself', tweeted Polat Can, a senior official with the Kurdish Democratic Forces.
The informant also provided a blood from the Isis leader to further prove his access to the Jihadist.
US intelligence officials used the samples to get a positive DNA match on Baghdadi, to set the raid in motion. The underwear was stolen about three months ago and the blood sample was taken roughly a month ago, a Kurdish official told NBC.
Trump did thank Syrian Kurds on Sunday for their role in helping to find Baghdadi.
The president, speaking to the nation from the White House, said the Kurds weren't involved militarily, but did provide 'some information that turned out to be helpful'.
For many Kurds it wasn't enough of a an acknowledgment, especially after Trump thanked Russia and other nations. Kurdish-led forces have lost 11,000 men and women since they began fighting ISIS five years ago.
Compiled by Olalekan Adeleye
MailOnline
