Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, take questions from reporters at the Pentagon October 28, 2019.
Transcript
Well, good afternoon, everyone. As President Trump announced yesterday, United States Joint Special Operations Forces conducted a successful raid on Saturday night resulting in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of Isis. This operation was the combination of a multi-year, interagency effort to find him and then capture or kill him. Baghdadi and the thugs who follow him were responsible for some of the most brutal atrocities of our time. His death marks a devastating blow for the remnants of Isis who are now deprived of their inspirational leader following the destruction of their physical caliphate earlier this year. I want to thank our brave service members who took part in this daring raid along with our interagency partners who supported the mission. There is no guarantee of success in an operation with this level of difficulty and President Trump knew this when he made the bold decision to order the raid, confident in the expertise of our forces. Our service members conducted themselves with incredible skill and professionalism and they executed the rate, in all of its facets, brilliantly. Not a single United States service member was killed in this high-risk operation. Despite Baghdadi’s death, the security situation in Syria remains complex. Multiple state and non-state actors continue to vie for control of territory and resources within the country. As we have learned from our recent history in the Middle East, it is very easy to get drawn into continued conflict if our objectives are not clear, acting as a police force out to solve every dispute is not our mission. Our mission in Syria, today, remains the same as it was when we first began operations in 2014, to enable the enduring defeat of Isis. Our recent repositioning of forces within a country is intended to posture us to continue this mission and give the president options, while returning the balance back home to the United States. Those who remain, will continue execute counterterrorism operations whilst staying in close contact with the Syrian democratic forces who have fought alongside us. Additionally, the United States will retain control of oil fields in Northeast Syria. At the height of Baghdadi’s reign, these oil fields provided Isis with the bulk of financial resources used to fund its terror. US troops will remain positioned in this strategic area to deny Isis access to those vital resources. And we will respond with overwhelming military force against any group that threatens the safety of our forces there. These oil fields also provide a critical source of funding to the SDF, which enables their ability to secure Isis prison camps and conduct operations against Isis among other things. Last week, I was in Brussels for the NATO Defense Ministerial and I spoke with our allies about the situation in Syria. I reiterated our commitment to the defeat of Isis and called on other nations who have much at stake to offer their support to help mitigate the ongoing security crisis. Turkey continues to bear responsibility for the consequences of their unwarranted incursion, which has brought further instability to the region. A number of allies have expressed their desire to help with the implementation of a safe zone along the Syria-Turkey border. The United States remain focused on our core mission and continue to work closely with the defeat Isis coalition as we implement the next phase of the campaign. Baghdadi’s death will not rid the world of terrorism or end the ongoing conflict in Syria, but it will certainly send a message to those who would question America’s resolve and provide a warning to terrorists who think they can hide. The United States more than any other nation in the world, possesses the power and the will to hunt to the ends of the Earth those who wish to bring harm upon the American people. Saturday’s operation is just one example of the incredible determination and great skill of the United States military. I’ll now ask General Milley to provide you with some additional details on the operation. Thank you.
So good afternoon, everyone. As the Secretary has fore-stated, the United States Special Operations Forces under the command and control of United States Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, conducted a counterterrorism operation which resulted in the death of the founder and the leader of Isis Abu Bakr Baghdadi. Intelligence from numerous organizations throughout the Department of Defense and across the entire interagency, identified the target location approximately four miles from the Turkish Border in Idlib province of Syria In order to reduce the risk to US forces and prevent miscalculation and escalation, an action consistent with operations in the past we coordinated with appropriate militaries and other organizations in the region through established deconfliction mechanisms. During the mission, US forces were infiltrated by helicopter and once on the objective, secured the target compound. The assault force was engaged with small arms fire and the threats were quickly eliminated. Our forces also isolated the compound and protected all the non-combatants. While clearing the objective, US forces discovered al-Baghdadi hiding in a tunnel. The assault force closed in on Baghdadi and ended when he detonated a suicide vest. Baghdadi’s remains were then transported to a secure facility to confirm his identity with forensic DNA testing and the disposal of his remains has been done and is complete and was handled appropriately. The success of this complex operation is an incredible testament to the professionalism of the men and women of the Joint Force and our interagency partners in their courage and their bravery. They put themselves in harm’s way, time and time again, to protect our great country. The Secretary and I will now take your questions.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the oil fields and securing the oil fields in the east of Syria. Has the deployment of reinforcements, that you announced last week, begun and could you describe more fully what you intend to do there?
We have begun deploying repositioning additional assets into the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor. As I said the other day, includes mechanized forces and other types of forces. That will continue until we believe we have sufficient capability to ensure Isis and other destabilizing actors are denied access to that oil facility.
As a quick follow-up, have you had any indications of any challenges to your presence there?
[Secretary] Not this time.
[Coordinator] Jennifer Digman.
Sir, do you have video of Baghdadi’s final moments? And also are you partnering with the Kurds again on the ground? Can you explain how difficult this operation would have been if you didn’t have troops or bases on the ground in Syria and in Iraq?
Go ahead.
Well, we do have video photos. We’re not prepared at this time to release those. They’re going through a declassification process, I think what you’ll see here in the coming days is we’ll set up some operational tactical level briefings by Central Command and you’ll be provided some video and photos etc. of that.
How difficult would it have been to carry out this operation if you didn’t have troops on the ground.
From an operational standpoint, the United States military can strike any target, anywhere, anytime.
Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. We have incredible reach, we can strike anybody, anytime, anywhere. The terrorists should be aware of that. They should have seen that now after us doing this multiple times and with regard to your question regarding the SDF, we stay in continuous contact with them.
[Coordinator] Yancy.
[Yancy] Thank you, I wondered if you could clarify a few points. First, what was used to destroy the compound, what kind of ordinances used to destroy the compound? Also, you mentioned that you had video, do you have video from inside the tunnel itself and if so, were you able to get that because the canine was wearing video or did you have something else?
[General Milley] Sure, yeah.
Wait, one more.
That’s two questions.
You just get one.
She just gets five.
Okay, how about one and a half, the name of the canine, please, and.
Where’s Molly?
And.
That’s it, you got three. That’s three, so ordinance used, There was multiple types of ordnance used to include the JASSMs, GBUs, HELLFIREs, as well as many guns, small arms fire etc. So we use a variety of munitions and the bombs were used at the tail end in order to destroy the compounds you saw on on various videos etc. Your second question about the video. I’m not gonna classify the video, what we do have and don’t have at this time, I’ve seen a lot and I’ll wait until everything’s appropriately declassified here in the coming days and we’ll make sure that you’re provided that. We’re not releasing the name of the dog right now. The dog is still in theater, the dog, the canine, the military working dog performed a tremendous service as they all do in a variety of situations, slightly wounded and fully recovering, but the dog is still in theater, return to duty with its handler. So we’re not gonna release, just yet, photos or names of dogs or anything else.
Protecting his identity.
It’s a classified unit and we’re protecting the dog’s identity.
[Yancy] Would you be willing to say whether Baghdadi was buried at sea?
[General Milly] That’s four questions now.
[Yancy] Follow up, that’s a follow up.
Baghdadi, his remains were disposed of appropriately in accordance with our SOPs and in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict.
[Coordinator] Next question, Dave Martin.
Was Baghdadi’s headquarters his compound or was he just passing through? And if it was his headquarters, how much material did you take away?
There was material taken away. I don’t wanna characterize exactly what or how much yet, until it gets exploited properly, but as a matter of course, we always do sensitive site exploitation on any objective, anywhere to do that. As whether it’s his headquarters, it was an area in which he was staying on a consistent basis.
And what about prisoners, you took some, how many and whose custody are they in now?
They’re in our custody and they’re at a secure facility.
[Coordinator] Next question, Dan Leman.
[Dave] Can you tell us how many?
There were two adult males taken off the objective, alive and they’re in our custody.
[Coordinator] Dan.
[Dan] Gentleman, thank you for your time today. I wanted to look at the what’s next aspect. The president alluded to materials being collected from the site itself, can you in any way elaborate on what’s been collected, what’s being look through now and what that might mean?
[General Milley] It would be best not to for operational reasons because that information needs to be exploited properly for any follow-on missions that we may choose to do.
[Secretary] And I think what next is we we’ll continue the mission and the mission is to ensure the enduring defeat of Isis in the region and that’s our mission.
Follow up, please, we’ve seen reporting that this raid was launched from al-Assad from Erbil, can you clarify in where it came from?
Operationally, we’re not gonna discuss the location from which the raid took place. It took place, obviously, in somewhere in the region.
[Coordinator] Barbara.
[Barbara] General Milley, can I take you back to the question on the oil fields and the military role in the oil field mission if I may? So you’re gonna protect them again and keep control against Isis and other potential adversaries, does it include the possibility, in your view, that US troops are prepared to deny access to the oil fields to either Russian and or Syrian forces, is that in fact part of your mission to specifically deny them access? And my follow-on to that is what do you need to see to know you’re done with the oil field position? Presumably you’re not keeping troops there absolutely forever, how do you know when you’re done? What do you need to see? But Russia and Syria, please.
Yeah, so the question you’re asking, Barbara, is about purpose and end state and then the ways would be the military question. So I’m gonna punt over to the Secretary, specifically for that, but the military task that we’ve been given is to continue to secure Tanf, which you know where that is, down along the try border area. We’ll continue to do that and to secure the Conoco oil fields in and around Deir ez-Zor. That is in the vicinity of the Euphrates River Valley that you’re familiar with. And the fundamental purpose of securing those oil fields is to deny those oil fields access to Isis in order to prevent Isis from resurgence because we are still committed to the counter Isis campaign, and we don’t want them to resurge, they get a lot of the revenues from that. But I’ll let the Secretary talked about end states.
[Barbara] So the specific question is within what you want to do in the oil field, does that include denying access, preventing Russian or Syrian forces, which now change the battle space?
So the short answer is, yes, it presently does because in that case we want to make sure that SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the defeat Isis mission, so that’s to secure the oil fields.
Next.
But you just said you would deny Russia and the regime.
Next question.
[Reporter] General Milley, President Trump described yesterday Baghdadi whimpering and crying before he died. Can you elaborate or confirm those details?
The Secretary was asked the same question yesterday. I know the president had planned to talk down to unit and unit members, but I don’t know what the source of that was there, but I assume it was talking directly to unit and unit members
[Reporter] But you haven’t talked to any unit members who have described that to you?
I have not talked to unit members, no, that’s correct. I’ve talked to the commander, CENTCOM and others, but not down to the unit members down at that level.
[Coordinator] All right, last question.
[Reporter] Thank you for doing this. So the SDF Commander has said that there was an SDF member that was part of this raid. He’s talked about the intelligence that the SDF provided putting a person inside with Isis. Can you confirm all of those details on your end and then also on the oil fields, can you just talk about the overall picture in Syria now after these last couple of weeks, putting more people in to protect oil fields, are there gonna be more troops now in Syria than there were before or less?
Well, I’ll take the second question first and I’ll let the chairman answer the first one. Look, as I said, we’re reinforcing our position at Deir ez-Zor, that area. We’re also, we’re given the earlier directive to retain forces at the Al-Tanf Garrison, at the end of the day, we will be sending troops home. The President made a commitment to do that, but in the meantime, we’re gonna reinforce and make some other moves to ensure that we can accomplish that mission of securing the oil fields in order to deny ’em access to Isis.
So will there be more going in than there were coming out, sorry, just to clarify?
No, no, no, at the end of the day, my expectation is that it’ll be fewer than than what we had before and they will be going home.
And help me out, remind me of the first question.
The first question was about the SDF commander said that.
Yeah, yes, yes, so this was a US only operation for personnel that were on the objective, I know what you’re referring to, there was a comment somewhere reported in the media that the SDF had soldiers, or troops, or one person, or something on the objective with our forces. I’m not gonna comment on what may or may not have happened with the SDF on the objective. The actions on the objective, the aircraft coming in, the aircraft overhead and the soldiers conducting assault was a US Only operation.
Just one more follow up.
All right, thanks guys. If you have any follow ups you can come in here and we’ll still fit them.