Donald Trump‘s top general has said he is not certain where or how the president learned that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died “whimpering and crying”.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff – the US’ most senior military officer – told reporters that “I don’t know what the source of that was”.
Mr Trump made the claim during an extraordinary press conference announcing the death of the Isis leader in a special forces raid inside Syria.
Al-Baghdadi spent his last moments in utter fear, ”whimpering and crying”, and died as “a coward, running and crying”, the US president said on Sunday.
The typically Trumpian tenor of the remarks prompted questions about their accuracy – especially given the live surveillance feed watched by the president during the raid did is not thought to have included audio.
Mark Esper, the defence secretary, said that “I don’t have those details” when asked about the “whimpering” characterisation. “The president probably had the opportunity to talk to the commanders on the ground,” he said.
Gen Milley gave a similar explanation, suggesting Mr Trump had had the chance to speak to individual Delta Force operators about the raid.
He said: “The secretary was asked the same question yesterday. I know the president had planned to talk down to the unit and unit members, but I don’t know what the source of that was.
“But I assume it was talking directly to the unit and unit members.”
Gen Milley said he personally had not spoken directly to the operators, only to commanders higher up the chain.
