Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani made the announcement on Friday that head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was eliminated in a joint operation with US-led coalition forces.
Head of ISIS in Syria, Iraq killed: The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq, the Iraqi prime minister Shia al-Sudani announced on Friday. The Iraqi PM said that Abu Khadija, who was the “deputy caliph” of the militant group, was killed in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces.
“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” the Iraqi leader said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
On his Truth Social platform Friday night, US President Donald Trump said, “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.
A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai’s death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat IS.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS.”
He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.
Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront IS, and said it would soon begin work.
(With inputs from agencies)