WASHINGTON — The Washington Post is facing widespread criticism on social media for how it handled the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As President Donald Trump announced Sunday, the ruthless ISIS leader died during an overnight raid by U.S. special forces in northern Syria. As members of the U.S. military closed in, the president said al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest that killed himself and the children he had brought with him.
"He died like a dog. He died like a coward," President Trump said.
Newspapers published stories about al-Baghdadi's death. But, one obituary stood out among many others.
The Washington Post -- which appears to have first described al-Baghdadi as ISIS' "terrorist in chief" -- later changed its headline to something that left people scratching their heads.
"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48," the Post's updated headline read.
Amid an outcry, the newspaper then changed the headline again, this time to call al-Baghdadi an "extremist leader."
The newspaper's vice president of communications, Kristine Coratti Kelly, told Fox News: "Regarding our al-Baghdadi obituary, the headline should never have read that way and we changed it quickly."
Prominent Twitter users slammed the newspaper.
"I have no words," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer urged his followers to stop and think about what the Post's headline was implying about the "ruthless brutal terrorist who threatened our country."
Many Twitter users began using satire with the hashtag #WaPoDeathNotices to highlight the way they felt about the headline.
Jason Howerton, director of engagement at Blaze media, satirically wrote: "Adolf Hitler, passionate community planner and dynamic public speaker, dies at 56."
According to CBS News, the U.S. State Department raised its reward for information about al-Baghdadi to $25 million back in 2016. He had been one of the most-wanted terrorists in the entire world.
He was born in 1971 and claimed to have been a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. As CBS explains, he was detained in a prison camp that became an incubator for jihadis after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2004. He was released a year later and joined al Qaeda's offshoot in Iraq, the news network reports. CBS says the high-profile terrorist rose to become the offshoot's leader, moved into the midst of Syria's civil war and renamed his organization ISIS.
"At its peak, ISIS ruled over an estimated 10 million people in Iraq and Syria, enslaving women and performing public executions," CBS News reports. "Although its territorial caliphate ceased to exist earlier this year, there are still as many as 18,000 ISIS members in Iraq and Syria and Kurdish forces have said another 12,000 accused ISIS fighters were imprisoned."
CBS News contributed to this report.
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