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<\/a>(AP)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
NEWSMAX<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump on Saturday attacked The New York Times and its “sick agenda,” alleging that one of the paper’s reports thwarted a US bid to take out Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n
Trump did not expand on his charge against The Times, or explain what revelation by the daily is supposed to have hampered Baghdadi’s capture.<\/p>\n
The New York Times told the Politico news site in a statement: “We have asked the White House to clarify the tweet.”<\/p>\n
U.S. media suggested that Trump may have been referring to a Fox News report about comments made by a top general at a security conference on Friday in Aspen, Colorado.<\/p>\n
At that gathering, General Tony Thomas — head of the US military’s Special Operations Command — reportedly said that American forces at one point came “particularly close” to Baghdadi after a 2015 raid recovered information about the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
Fox News reported that Thomas said U.S. troops had “a very good lead,” on the ISIS leader’s whereabouts.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,” Thomas reportedly said at the forum.<\/p>\n
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Friday that he believes Baghdadi is still alive, following various claims in recent months that he has been killed.<\/p>\n
“We are going after him, but we assume he is alive,” the Pentagon chief said.<\/p>\n
There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi has died in recent months.<\/p>\n
With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but is rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n
The Iraqi — nicknamed “The Ghost” — has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as “caliph” in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul, which was destroyed in the battle for Iraq’s second city.<\/p>\n
The Times has become a favorite Trump target despite his penchant for reaching out to the daily, including this week, when he gave its reporters a major interview in which he criticized his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 AFP 2017<\/p>\n