Chief of ISIS in Iraq and Syria killed in navy operation, Pentagon says

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 proceed their spectacular victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated in an announcement posted on X.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and often called “one of the crucial harmful terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the assertion stated.

On his Reality Social platform Friday evening, President Trump wrote: “Right now the fugitive chief 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 seek out each deceased terrorists sporting unexploded suicide vests and armed with a number of weapons, CENTCOM stated. 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 crucial vital ISIS members in the complete world ISIS group,” stated Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, in an announcement. “We’ll proceed to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and U.S., allied and companion personnel within the area and past.”

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 stated at a information convention that “there are widespread challenges going through Syrian and Iraqi society, and particularly the terrorists of IS.” He stated the officers had spoken “intimately in regards to the actions of ISIS, whether or not on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” in the course of the go to.

Hussein referred to an operations room shaped by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a latest assembly in Amman to confront IS, and stated it will 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 significant backer of Assad. The present interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was beforehand often called 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.

“All through historical past, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing information, tradition and financial system,” he stated.

Strengthening the partnership between the 2 international locations “is not going to solely profit our peoples, however can even contribute to the soundness of the area, making us much less depending on exterior powers and higher in a position to decide our personal future,” he stated.

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 worry a breakdown in general safety that would permit the group to stage a resurgence.

The U.S. and Iraq introduced an settlement final 12 months to wind down the navy 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 navy presence within the nation.

When the settlement was reached to finish the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders stated the specter of the Islamic State was beneath management they usually now 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.