Iraqi Prime Minister announced Friday that heads of the Islamic State and Syria were killed in Iraq during an operation between Iraqi National Intelligence Agency members and U.S.-led joint forces.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement released on X: “The Iraqis continue to achieve impressive victory in the power of darkness and terrorism.
The statement said Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai or “Abu Khadija” was the “caliph deputy” of the militant group and was “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world”.
On Friday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said on his truth social platform: “Today, the fugitive leader of Iraq ISIS was killed. He coordinated with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.
“Peace through power!” Trump released.
A security official said the operation was conducted by air strikes in Anbar province, western Iraq. The operation took place Thursday night, but Al-Rifai’s death has been confirmed, a second official said. They spoke on anonymously because they did not have the right to comment publicly.
The news comes the same day as Syria’s top diplomat’s first visit to Iraq, during which the two countries promised a joint effort to combat ISIS.
“The common challenges faced by Syrian and Iraqi society, especially ISIS terrorists,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said in a press conference. He said officials detailed the ISIS movement during their visit, whether on the Syria-Iraq border, inside Syria or within Iraq.”
Hussein mentioned a war room facing ISIS in Amman by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, and said that work will start soon.
The relationship between Iraq and Syria has been somewhat fulfilled after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a factional coalition supported by Iran, Tehran is a major supporter of Assad.
The current Syrian interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, fought as an al-Qaeda militant in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003, and later fought Assad’s government in Syria.
But Syria’s interim foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani focused on the historical relationship between the two countries.
“Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic worlds throughout history, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.
He said strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our people, but also contribute to stability in the region, allowing us to reduce external power and be able to better determine our own destiny.”
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The operation and visit came a time when Iraqi officials were anxious about the ISIS revival after the fall of Assad in Syria.
While Syria’s new ruler (led by former Islamic insurgency group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) has been pursuing ISIS cells since, some fear that a collapse in overall security could allow the group to be resurrected.
The United States and Iraq announced a deal last year to end with a military mission with the ISIS group in combating Iraq by September 2025, with U.S. troops sending troops to some bases during the country’s twenty-year military presence.
When a deal was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat from ISIS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to defeat the rest of the cells.
However, Assad’s fall in December caused some to reassess this position, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of primarily Shiites, Iran-Iranian parties that brought Al-Sudani to power by the end of 2022.
