The Islamic State Chief in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service along with the United States -led coalition forces, the Central United States and Iraqi Prime Minister announced on Friday.
« The Iraqi continue their impressive victories about the forces of darkness and terrorism, » said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in a statement published in X.
Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or « Abu Khadija », was « Safute Caliph » of the militant group known as « one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world, » the statement said.
On his true social platform on Friday night, President Trump wrote: « Today, Isis’s fugitive leader was assassinated in Iraq. It was relentlessly hunted by our intrepid warriors » in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.
« Peace through force! » Trump published.
Hundred informed In a publication on social media that Abu Khadija was killed on Thursday in a « precision aircraft » in the province of Al Anbar de Iraq in an operation that involved Iraqi intelligence and Centcom Forces. A second operation Isis was also assassinated on the strike. An aerial video of the strike was also published.
Following the aerial forces, the United States and Iraqi forces moved to the two dead terrorists who wore unpublished suicide vests and armed with multiple weapons, said Centcom. Abu Khadijah was identified by DNA tests that had been collected during a previous raid that he had escaped.
« Abu Khadijah was one of the most important members of the ISIS of the entire global organization Isis, » said General Michael Erik Kurilla, Commander of Centcom, in a statement. « We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and we, an allied person and associated with the region and beyond. »
The announcement took place the same day as the first visit of Syria’s highest diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat the Islamic State.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said in a press conference that « there are regular challenges that faces Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the Is Is terrorists. » He said that officials had spoken « in detail about the movements of ISIS, either on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in Syria or Iraq » during the visit.
Al-Sudani/Anadolu Decision through Getty Images 
Hussein referred to an operation room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon in a recent meeting in Amman to face -and said he would soon begin to work.
The relationship between Iraq and Syria is a bit full The fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of factions with Iran, and Tehran was an important Assad sponsor. The current temporary president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an Al-Qaeda militant in Iraq after the United States invasion of 2003, and then fought against the Assad government in Syria.
But Syria’s interim foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Hibani focused on the historical links between the two countries.
« Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economics, » he said.
Strengthen collaboration between the two countries « will not only benefit our peoples, but also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on the external powers and capable of determining our own destiny, » he said.
Operation and visit arrive at a time when Iraqi officials are eager for an Islamic State resurgence in Wake of the Fall of Assad In Syria.
While the new Syria rulers, led by the former Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, have persecuted the Islamic State cells Fear a breakdown of general safety This could allow the group to stage a resurgence.
The United States and Iraq announced an agreement last year to end Iraq’s military mission of an American coalition fighting the Islamic State Group in September 2025, with American forces that left some bases where they have parked troops for a military presence of two decades in the country.
When the agreement was reached to end the coalition mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said that the threat of the Islamic State was under control and that they no longer needed Washington’s help to combat the remaining cells.
But the fall of Assad in December led some to re-evaluate that the position, including members of the coordination framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite political parties, allied by Iran brought by the current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudtani to the end of 2022.
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