The head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was killed, says the Iraqi prime minister

Baghdad (AP)-the chief of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was killed in Iraq in an operation by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, along with the US coalition forces, Iraqi prime minister announced on Friday.

“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani in an X-posted statement, previously known as Twitter.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh Al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija”, was “Deputy Calif” and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the statement said.

On his social platform on Friday night, US President Donald Trump said: “Today, ISIS fugitive leader was killed. He was ceaselessly hunted by our intrinsic fighters ”, coordinating with the Iraqi government and the Kurz Regional Government.

“Peace through power!” Trump posted.

A security official said the operation was performed by an air attack in the province of ANBAR, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place on Thursday night, but that Al-Rifai’s death was confirmed on Friday. They spoke to the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit of the best diplomat in Syria to Iraq, during which the two countries were employed to work together to combat is.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein told a press conference that “there are common challenges faced by the Syrian and Iraqi society, and in particular the terrorists are.” He said that officials spoke “in detail about ISIS movements, or on the Syrian-Irakian border, inside Syria or Iraq” during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operating room made up of Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, a recent meeting in Amman, to face it and said that work will start soon.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat full of the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of factions supported by Iran, and Tehran was a major supporter of ASSAD. The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani and fought as an Al-Qaida militant after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad’s government in Syria.

But the interim foreign minister Syrian, Asad Hassan Al-Shibani, focused on the historical ties between the two countries.

“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus were the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.

The consolidation of the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit from our peoples, but it will also contribute to the stability of the region, making it less dependent on the external powers and more capable of determining our own destiny,” he said.

The operation and visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are impatient about a resurrection of the recurrence following Assad’s fall in Syria.

While the new leaders of Syria – led by the former Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al -Sham – followed the cells from taking power, some are afraid of a general security breakdown that could allow the group to resume.

The US and Iraq announced last year an agreement to eliminate the military mission in Iraq of a coalition led by Americans fighting with the Islamic State Group until September 2025, with American forces starting from some bases where they stayed during a two -year military presence in the country.

When the agreement was concluded to put an end to the mission of the coalition in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat is under control and that they no longer needed Washington to defeat the remaining cells.

However, Assad’s fall in December determined some to re-evaluate this position, including members of the coordination framework, a coalition of political, allied, allied parties, who have brought the current Iraqi premier Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani to power at the end of 2022.

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Abby Sewell, personal Associated Press writer, has contributed to this report.