The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service together with the coalition forces led by the United States, the Iraqi Prime Minister announced on Friday.
“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories about the forces of darkness and terrorism,” said Prime Minister, Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, in a statement published in X, previously known as Twitter.
Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija”, was “Caliph deputy” of the militant group and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” said the statement.
On his true social platform on Friday night, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, said: “Today, Isis fugitive leader in Iraq was killed.
Our intrepid warriors trusted him relentlessly “in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.
“Peace through force!” Trump published.
A security official said the operation was carried out by an air attack in the province of Anbar, in western Iraq.
A second official said that the operation took place on Thursday night, but that the death of Al-Rifai was confirmed on Friday.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The announcement came the same day as the first visit of Syria’s main diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to fight.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Foud Hussein said at a press conference that “there are common challenges that face Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of the SI.”
He said that officials had spoken “in detail about ISIS movements, either on the Syria-Iraquí border, within Syria or Iraq” during the visit.
Hussein referred to an operating room formed by Syria, Iraq, Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to face IS, and said he would soon start working.
The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat tense after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of factions backed by Iran, and Tehran was a great Assad sponsor.
The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as a militant of Al-Qaida in Iraq after the invasion of the United States of 2003, and then fought against the Assad government in Syria.
But Sirius Minister of Sirius Asaad Hassan Al-Sibani focused on historical ties between the two countries.
“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.
The strengthening of the association between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, which makes us less dependent on external powers and better capable of determining our own destiny,” he said.
The operation and visit arrive at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious for a resurgence of IS following the fall of Assad in Syria.
While the new rulers of Syria, led by the former insurgent Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al -sham, have pursued the cells since they take power, some fear a collapse in the general security that could allow the group to organize a resurgence.
The United States and Iraq announced an agreement last year to reduce the military mission in Iraq of a coalition led by the United States that fights the Islamic State group in September 2025, with the US forces that start from some bases where troops have parked during a two decades military presence in the country.
When the agreement was reached to end the mission of the coalition in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said that the threat of IS was under control and that they no longer needed Washington’s help to overcome the remaining cells.
But Assad’s fall in December led some to reassess that position, including the members of the coordination framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite political parties and allies of Iran who brought to the current Iraqi prime minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani at the end of 2022.
