Iraq’s PM says it has killed senior Islamic State leader responsible for ‘foreign operations’

BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces have killed a senior Islamic State group leader responsible for “foreign operations”, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani announced on Friday.

Although Iraq had proclaimed in 2017 the defeat of the jihadist group on its territory, ISIS cells have remained active and carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq’s army and police.

Abdullah Makki Muslih Al-Rufayi “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world”, Sudani said on X, formerly Twitter.

The jihadist, sanctioned by the United States in 2023, was ISIS’s so-called governor of the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces, according to the Iraqi premier.

Rufayi was also “responsible for the foreign operations offices”, Sudani said.

He did not say when Rufayi was killed but applauded the operation by Iraqi intelligence that was carried out in cooperation with the U.S.-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq.

The Kurdistan Region Security Council swiftly issued a statement slating the Prime Minister’s office for not mention its role in the operation: “Regrettably, the statement from the Iraqi Federal Prime Minister’s Office did not acknowledge the key role played by the Kurdistan Region Security Council in this operation. This omission is not a positive signal for institutional cooperation between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government.

“The institutions under the Kurdistan Region Security Council have played a crucial role in countering terrorist threats in the region and will continue to effectively fulfill this responsibility. It would be preferable for the federal government to foster better cooperation and coordination to ensure the security and stability of all of Iraq.”

“Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” U.S. President Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government.”

The U.S. Central Command posted on X, formerly Twitter, what appeared to be a video of the strike, which it said “killed the Global ISIS #2 leader… and one other ISIS operative.”

It said that both fighters had been wearing unexploded “suicide vests” and that it had identified Rufayi through a DNA match.

Last October, Baghdad said Iraqi forces had killed nine ISIS group commanders. They included the so-called governor of Iraq for ISIS, Jassim al-Mazrouei Abu Abdel Qader, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said at the time.

ISIS in 2014 declared a “caliphate” after capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria, beginning a rule marked by atrocities.

Iraqi forces backed by the international coalition defeated ISIS in late 2017. The group lost its last territory in Syria two years later.

The group has, however, maintained a presence in Syria’s vast desert, and in Iraq largely carries out attacks in rural areas.

About 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq, which now considers its security forces capable of confronting the jihadists.

The U.S. and Iraq announced in late September that the international coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq within a year, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

This article has been updated to include the statements by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, U.S. President Trump, and CENTCOM

AFP contributed to this report