A senior Islamic State (IS) group chief 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-Rifai, also called Abu Khadijah, “was thought of probably the most harmful terrorists in Iraq and the world”, in line 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) stated it carried out a “precision airstrike” in Iraq’s western Al Anbar province, which killed “probably the most essential” IS members on Thursday.
Rifai was the pinnacle of IS’s most senior decision-making physique and was accountable 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 world 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!”
Rifai was discovered lifeless alongside one different IS operative, Centcom stated.
“Each terrorists have been sporting unexploded ‘suicide vests’ and had a number of weapons,” it added.
Centcom and Iraqi forces have been capable of establish him via a DNA match from DNA collected on a earlier raid the place he “narrowly escaped”, it added.
Gen Michael Erik Kurilla stated Rifai “was probably the most essential IS members in the whole world IS organisation.
“We’ll proceed to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and US, allied and associate personnel within 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 virtually 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.
Nonetheless militants and sleeper cells proceed to have a presence in numerous elements of the nation and perform sporadic assaults towards Iraq’s military and police.
