The pinnacle of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi nationwide intelligence service together with U.S.-led coalition forces, U.S. Central Command and the Iraqi prime minister introduced Friday.
“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani mentioned in a press release posted on X.
Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and generally known as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the assertion mentioned.
On his Reality Social platform Friday evening, President Trump wrote: “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” in coordination with the Iraqi authorities and the Kurdish regional authorities.
“PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!” Trump posted.
CENTCOM reported in a social media put up that Abu Khadija was killed in a “precision airstrike” Thursday in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province in an operation involving Iraqi intelligence and CENTCOM forces. A second ISIS operative was additionally killed within the strike. Aerial video of the strike was additionally launched.
Following the airstrike, U.S. and Iraqi forces moved in to search out each deceased terrorists carrying unexploded suicide vests and armed with a number of weapons, CENTCOM mentioned. Abu Khadijah was recognized utilizing DNA testing which had been collected throughout a earlier raid which he had escaped.
“Abu Khadijah was one of the most important ISIS members in the entire global ISIS organization,” mentioned Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, in a press release. “We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and U.S., allied and partner personnel in the region and beyond.”
The announcement got here on the identical day as the primary go to by Syria’s high diplomat to Iraq, throughout which the 2 international locations pledged to work collectively to fight the Islamic State.
Iraqi International Minister Fouad Hussein mentioned at a information convention that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS.” He mentioned the officers had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” through the go to.
Murtadha Al-Sudani/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures
Hussein referred to an operations room fashioned by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a latest assembly in Amman to confront IS, and mentioned it could quickly start work.
The connection between Iraq and Syria is considerably fraught after the autumn of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al-Sudani got here to energy with the help of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a serious backer of Assad. The present interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was beforehand generally known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the U.S. invasion of 2003, and later fought in opposition to Assad’s authorities in Syria.
However Syrian interim International Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani centered on the historic ties between the 2 international locations.
“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he mentioned.
Strengthening the partnership between the 2 international locations “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he mentioned.
The operation and the go to come at a time when Iraqi officers are anxious about an Islamic State resurgence within the wake of the autumn of Assad in Syria.
Whereas Syria’s new rulers — led by the Islamist former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — have pursued Islamic State cells since taking energy, some concern a breakdown in total safety that might enable the group to stage a resurgence.
The U.S. and Iraq introduced an settlement final yr to wind down the army mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition combating the Islamic State group by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing some bases the place they’ve stationed troops throughout a two-decade-long army presence within the nation.
When the settlement was reached to finish the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders mentioned the specter of the Islamic State was underneath management they usually not wanted Washington’s assist to beat again the remaining cells.
However the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, together with members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-allied political events that introduced present Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to energy in late 2022.
