How The U.S. Missied The Chance To Kill ISIS Leader Al Baghdadi Years Ago

FOX News: Obama's Team Had the Chance to Kill ISIS leader Al Baghdadi -- And They Blew It

Editor's note: The following column is excerpted from the new book “Drone Warrior” by Brett Velicovich and Christopher S. Stewart.

The U.S. military had the leader of ISIS in its crosshairs years before he became the most wanted terrorist in the world — but the bureaucratic suits in Washington let him get away.

In 2011, a secretive U.S. special operations task force was orbiting a drone above a house in Baghdad, Iraq where they had new intelligence that the notorious terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had bunkered down for a meeting with his top ISIS lieutenants. A call went out from our headquarters and then back to higher-ups in the States: we’ve got him, can we take him out?

Our secretive targeting units had been hunting al-Baghdadi for years before he was known to the public, pushing him deeper and deeper in the shadows. Our weapon was mainly Predator MQ-1 drones equipped with two laser-guided AGM-114P Hellfire missiles, and a separate team of special operators able

to finish off targets we had acquired from the ground.

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WNU Editor: Brett Velicovich is pushing his book "Drone Warrior". For more reviews and discussions on this book, check out the links below.

Drone soldier missed killing notorious ISIS chief by mere minutes -- NYPost
Drone expert: For al-Baghdadi to still be alive takes a ‘brilliant mind’ -- The Hill
"Drone Warrior" Brett Velicovich on the "incredible responsibility" of hunting terrorists -- CBS
Brett Velicovich describes hunting the ISIS leader with drones (Video) -- CBS
Let’s Start By Talking About a Typical Day Working with Ballistic-Armed Drones -- Mother Jones
What Drone Warfare Does to a Soldier's Brain -- GQ