Trump claims impeachment was reason he kept Daesh raid secret
US President Donald Trump has suggested the impeachment probe launched by Democrats in the House of Representatives contributed to his decision to not inform congressional leaders about Saturday’s raid against Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday he didn’t inform the so-called “Gang of Eight” because the group, including US Representative Adam Schiff, is the “the biggest leaker in Washington.”
Schiff, the Democratic chairing the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, is playing a central role in the impeachment inquiry.
The group includes the top Democrat and Republican in both chambers of Congress and the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.
Trump is struggling with an impeachment inquiry focused on his request in a July telephone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination to face Trump in the 2020 election.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington did provide notice to Russia and other nations with military forces in Syria to “deconflict” operations.
Trump’s decision not to inform congressional leaders is the latest example of the Trump administration keeping Congress uninformed about White House foreign policy.
The Pentagon said a special operations raid carried out by the US military in the Syrian province of Idlib, which killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — the leader of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
Trump said on Sunday that Baghdadi had died “whimpering and crying” in a raid by US special forces in Syria, fulfilling his top national security goal.
The Joint Special Operations Command carried out the top-secret operation after receiving actionable intelligence, according to US military sources, and two Baghdadi's wives were also killed in the raid.
Critics have blamed the United States for its role in providing support to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and other nations in the region that spread the Takfiri ideology that builds terrorist groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda.
The Idlib operation was conducted only a few weeks after Trump announced that the US would be withdrawing its forces from northeastern Syria, clearing the path for an expected Turkish incursion into the region.
Turkey launched the offensive on October 9 with the aim of purging the northeastern Syrian regions near its border of US-backed Kurdish militants, whom it views as terrorists linked to local autonomy-seeking militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Trump, later however, rowed back on the withdrawal decision, announcing that a contingent of US Special Forces would remain in Syria to control its oil fields.
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