Head of Islamic State in Iraq, Syria killed: Iraqi PM

The flag of the Islamic State for representational objective.
| Picture Credit score: AP

The top 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 US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi Prime Minister introduced Friday (March 15, 2024).

“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, previously often called Twitter.

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

On his Reality Social platform Friday evening, U.S. President Donald Trump stated: “Immediately 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.

A safety official stated the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official stated the operation came about Thursday evening however that al-Rifai’s loss of life was confirmed Friday.

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 IS.

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 concerning the actions of ISIS, whether or not on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” through the go to.

Mr. Hussein referred to an operations room fashioned by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a latest assembly in Amman to confront IS, and stated 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 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 “won’t solely profit our peoples, however can even contribute to the steadiness 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 IS 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 IS cells since taking energy, some worry a breakdown in total safety that would enable the group to stage a resurgence.

The US 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 IS was beneath management and so they 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.