A senior Islamic State (IS) group leader in Iraq and Syria has been killed in an operation by members of the Iraqi nationwide intelligence service together with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister has stated.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa, also called Abu Khadija, “was thought of one of the vital harmful terrorists in Iraq and the world”, in keeping with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
US President Donald Trump stated “he was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters”.
The US Central Command (Centcom) posted on X what seemed to be a video of the strike, which it stated was carried out in Iraq’s western Al Anbar province on Thursday.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa was the top of IS’s most senior decision-making physique and was liable for operations, logistics, and planning carried out by IS globally, the US Central Command stated.
He additionally directed a big portion of finance for the group’s international organisation, Centcom added.
Posting on his Reality Social platform, President Trump stated: “His depressing life was terminated, together with one other member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Authorities and the Kurdish Regional Authorities. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa was discovered lifeless alongside one different IS operative, Centcom stated.
“Each terrorists had been sporting unexploded ‘suicide vests’ and had a number of weapons,” it added.
Centcom and Iraqi forces had been capable of determine him by way of a DNA match from DNA collected on a earlier raid the place he “narrowly escaped”, it added.
Gen Michael Erik Kurilla stated: “Abu Khadijah was one of the vital necessary IS members in your complete international IS organisation.
“We are going to proceed to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and US, allied and associate personnel in the area and past.”
IS as soon as held 88,000sq km (34,000sq miles) of territory stretching from north-eastern Syria throughout northern Iraq and imposed its brutal rule on nearly eight million individuals.
Iraq declared the defeat of IS in December 2017 and the group was pushed from its final piece of territory in 2019.
Nevertheless militants and sleeper cells proceed to have a presence in varied elements of the nation and perform sporadic assaults in opposition to Iraq’s military and police.
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