WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that  leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed, dying "like a dog" in a daring nighttime raid by US special forces in northwest Syria.

Trump told the nation in a televised address from the White House that US forces killed a "large number" of Islamic State (IS) group militants during the raid, which culminated with Baghdadi cornered in a tunnel, where he detonated a suicide vest.

"He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way," Trump said, adding that three of Baghdadi's children were also killed in the blast.