A senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group leader has been killed in a joint operation by the Iraqi national intelligence service and US-led coalition forces, according to the Iraqi prime minister.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, also known as Abu Khadijah, “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said.
United States President Donald Trump confirmed the killing, stating: “he was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters”.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said it carried out a “precision airstrike” in Iraq’s western Al Anbar province, which eliminated “one of the most important” ISIS members on Thursday.
According to Centcom, Rifai was identified as the head of the group’s most senior decision-making body and was said to be responsible for global operations, logistics, and planning. He was also in charge of a significant portion of ISIS’s international financial network.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform, President Trump wrote: “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!” –President Donald J. Trump.”
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Centcom added that Rifai was found dead alongside another ISIS operative and that both were wearing unexploded suicide vests and were armed with multiple weapons.
The US military said identification was confirmed through a DNA match from samples obtained in an earlier raid, during which Rifai narrowly escaped capture.
Gen Michael Erik Kurilla described him as “one of the most important ISIS members in the entire global IS organisation.”
“We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region and beyond,” he said.
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