BAGHDAD — The top of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi nationwide intelligence service together with U.S.-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister introduced Friday.
“The Iraqis proceed their spectacular victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani mentioned in a press release posted on X, previously generally known as Twitter.
Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and as “one of the crucial harmful terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the assertion mentioned.
A safety official mentioned the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province in western Iraq. A second official mentioned the operation happened Thursday night time however that al-Rifai’s dying was confirmed Friday. They spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to remark publicly.
The announcement got here on the identical day as the primary go to by Syria’s prime diplomat to Iraq, throughout which the 2 nations pledged to work collectively to fight IS.
Iraqi Overseas Minister Fouad Hussein mentioned at a information convention that “there are widespread challenges dealing with Syrian and Iraqi society, and particularly the terrorists of IS.” He mentioned the officers had spoken “intimately concerning the actions of ISIS, whether or not on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” in the course of the go to.
Hussein referred to an operations room shaped by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a current assembly in Amman to confront IS, and mentioned it could quickly start work.
The connection between Iraq and Syria is considerably fraught after the autumn of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al-Sudani got here to energy with the assist of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a significant backer of Assad. The present interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was beforehand generally known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the U.S. invasion of 2003, and later fought in opposition to Assad’s authorities in Syria.
However Syrian interim Overseas Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani targeted on the historic ties between the 2 nations.
“All through historical past, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing data, tradition and financial system,” he mentioned.
Strengthening the partnership between the 2 nations “won’t solely profit our peoples, however can even contribute to the soundness of the area, making us much less depending on exterior powers and higher in a position to decide our personal future,” he mentioned.
The operation and the go to come at a time when Iraqi officers are anxious about an IS resurgence within the wake of the autumn of Assad in Syria.
Whereas Syria’s new rulers — led by the Islamist former rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — have pursued IS cells since taking energy, some worry a breakdown in general safety that would enable the group to stage a resurgence.
The U.S. and Iraq introduced an settlement final yr to wind down the army mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition preventing the Islamic State group by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing some bases the place they’ve stationed troops throughout a two-decade-long army presence within the nation.
When the settlement was reached to finish the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders mentioned the specter of IS was below management and so they now not wanted Washington’s assist to beat again the remaining cells.
However the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, together with members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of primarily Shiite, Iran-allied political events that introduced present Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to energy in late 2022.
Related Press workers author Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
