IS chief buried at sea by US military: Pentagon source

[WASHINGTON] The body of Islamic State group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was buried at sea by the US military after he killed himself during the weekend raid on his Syrian hideout, a Pentagon source told AFP on Monday.

No details were given on where or when the body was disposed of, but it paralleled the 2011 sea burial of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after he was killed in a US special forces raid in Pakistan.

"The disposal of his remains has been done, is complete and was handled appropriately," said General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen Milley said the burial took place based on standard US military procedures and "in accordance with the law of armed conflict."

The founder and chief of one of the world's most brutal and feared jihadist groups, designated a terrorist around the world, took his own life with a suicide vest.

He had been chased down a dead-end subterranean tunnel under a hideaway in northwest Syria by US special forces in the weekend raid.

The US-led anti-Islamic State campaign had tracked him for years, but he remained elusive, until the US gained intelligence that pointed them to the site in the Idlib region of Syria, which is dominated by Al-Qaeda-allied groups normally hostile to the Islamic State.

His body was removed from the site for identification, and disposed of after biometrics and DNA tests confirmed it was Baghdadi, according to media reports.

AFP