An airstrike killed a senior Islamic State chief believed to be the pinnacle of the group in Iraq and Syria on Friday, in a joint Iraqi and U.S. operation utilizing intelligence from each nations, Iraq’s prime minister stated.
A senior U.S. navy official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate operational issues, confirmed the strike and stated that particular operations forces from each nations have been in Anbar Province, in Iraq, gathering materials from the strike web site.
The Islamic State chief, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i, who was also referred to as Abu Khadija, was “some of the harmful terrorists on the earth,” the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, stated in an announcement.
Iraqi forces have performed an aggressive antiterrorism marketing campaign over the past two years, disrupting, killing and detaining a lot of the Islamic State cells working within the nation with backing from the US.
The killing of a senior Islamic State chief within the Center East comes because the group has been reconstituting in Syria, finishing up extra assaults than at any time because it misplaced management of its territory almost six years in the past. There have been greater than 300 assaults in Syria alone in 2024, in accordance with the United Nations.
Mr. Al-Rufay’i used to be considered one of many senior leaders within the Islamic State within the area and was believed to carry a number of jobs, in accordance with essentially the most recent report by the United Nations, together with serving to coordinate amongst fighters in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and elsewhere.
He’s the third chief of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to be killed since 2019. Prior to now, new leaders have been appointed comparatively rapidly, though their identities might not be extensively identified for a while.
Since 2019, when the Islamic State was defeated in Iraq and Syria, the place it as soon as managed almost a 3rd of the geographic space of each nations, it has reconstituted itself and its group has modified. Whereas it was already increasing into new nations earlier than it misplaced its territory, the opposite branches have been secondary to its middle in Iraq and Syria.
Now, with associates in additional than a dozen nations throughout three continents, the group has evolved, in accordance with Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow on the Washington Institute, who has studied the Islamic State for a few years. Some actions, resembling media, are managed in a extra central means, whereas others are left to its branches.
Essentially the most lethal assaults in 2024 — in Russia and Iran — have been carried out by Islamic State operatives believed to have been working with the affiliate referred to as IS-Khorasan, which relies in Afghanistan, in accordance with the United Nations.
Eric Schmitt in Washington contributed reporting.
