Top Islamic State Leader Killed in Iraq
Iraqi security forces have killed a senior leader of the Islamic State (IS) group responsible for foreign operations, according to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. U.S. President Donald Trump later confirmed the news, stating that the “miserable life” of the leader had been “terminated.”
Despite Iraq declaring the defeat of the jihadist group in 2017, IS cells have continued to carry out sporadic attacks against Iraqi military and police forces.
The leader, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, was described by Prime Minister Sudani as one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world. Rufayi, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2023, served as IS’s governor for the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces. He was also responsible for managing the foreign operations offices of the group.
While the exact time of Rufayi’s death was not revealed, Sudani praised the Iraqi intelligence operation that led to the killing, which was carried out in cooperation with the U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition.
President Trump also addressed the operation, stating on his Truth Social platform that the ISIS leader was “relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” and that his death, along with another ISIS operative, occurred in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish Regional Government.
The U.S. Central Command released a video on social media showing the strike, confirming that it killed Rufayi and one other ISIS operative. The statement also mentioned that both men were wearing unexploded suicide vests and that Rufayi was identified through a DNA match.
IS, which declared a “caliphate” in 2014 after seizing large areas of Iraq and Syria, lost its last territorial strongholds by 2019. However, the group remains active in rural areas of Iraq and Syria, primarily carrying out guerrilla-style attacks.
Around 2,500 U.S. troops are still deployed in Iraq, but the country’s security forces are now seen as capable of handling the jihadist threat. In late September 2023, both Iraq and the U.S. announced plans to end the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq by September 2024, with the Kurdish region concluding its mission by 2026.
