When Trump talked of the demise of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in terms that made pearl-clutchers gasp with the harshness of it all, he left out perhaps the most embarrassing — and amazing — part of the story: Baghdadi was confirmed to be hiding where he was via DNA gleaned from his own soiled underwear.

Progressives have been horrified for a month that the Trump administration chose to leave the area where Baghdadi was hiding, saying the Kurdish forces their were being abandoned by their U.S. allies in the region. However, it’s been slowly leaking out that the Kurds were precisely the reason U.S. special forces who took out Baghdadi knew he was where he was. Some of that information came in the form of some dirty underwear, stolen by a Kurdish spy, that ultimately provided the DNA that led to confirmation of his whereabouts.

Fox News reports that, in a debriefing held just days after the United States’ most wanted terrorist blew himself up in a daring raid by U.S. Special Forces, Kurdish forces revealed that they were instrumental in tracking and keeping tabs on al-Baghdadi, even though the terror leader moved frequently and was due to depart his Idlib, Syria, safehouse any day.

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“Before al-Baghdadi could move, a Kurdish undercover operative was able to reach him and retrieve the self-styled ‘Caliph’s’ underwear,” according to Fox News. “Through a DNA test, he said they were able to confirm ‘100%’ that the person of interest was al-Baghdadi.”

While the tale of the dirty knickers is as yet unconfirmed by U.S. sources, the Trump administration has credited Kurdish forces for their help in neutralizing the terrorist leader.

Facial recognition was also used to identify the ISIS leader following the blast because his head was reportedly intact.