Why Did Turkish Intelligence Fail At Finding Baghdadi? By Seth J. Frantzman – Jerusalem Post
When US special forces disembarked from eight helicopters to raid a compound where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was holed up, they had good intelligence from various sources in Iraq and Syria that confirmed the terror leader’s location. They were also just a few kilometres from the Turkish border. They were so close their flight path took them into Turkish airspace and they had to tell Turkey and Russia about the request to raid the area. They didn’t tell them all the details of the operation.
How did Turkish intelligence not know what was going on within shouting distance of their border? How did a NATO ally, as sophisticated as Turkey, with UAVs and signals intelligence and observation posts throughout Idlib where Baghdadi was living not know he was there? Turkish media which is almost all pro-government and often rapidly nationalist, has claimed that Baghdadi was only able to get to Idlib by crossing areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Daily Sabah headline on October 29 claimed “Al-Baghdadi’s death exposes YPG-Daesh ties.”…