{"id":54435,"date":"2025-03-15T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54435"},"modified":"2025-03-15T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T13:08:00","slug":"islamic-state-leader-in-iraq-and-syria-killed-us-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54435","title":{"rendered":"Islamic State leader in Iraq and Syria killed, US says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">A senior Islamic State (IS) group leader in Iraq and Syria has been killed in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister has said.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa, also known as Abu Khadija, &#8220;was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world&#8221;, according to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">US President Donald Trump said &#8220;he was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The US Central Command (Centcom) posted on X what appeared to be a video of the strike, which it said was carried out in Iraq&#8217;s western Al Anbar province on Thursday.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa was the head of IS&#8217;s most senior decision-making body and was responsible for operations, logistics, and planning conducted by IS globally,  the US Central Command said.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">He also directed a large portion of finance for the group&#8217;s global organisation, Centcom added.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Posting on his Truth Social platform, President Trump said: &#8220;His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa was found dead alongside one other IS operative, Centcom said.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;Both terrorists were wearing unexploded &#8216;suicide vests&#8217; and had multiple weapons,&#8221; it added.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Centcom and Iraqi forces were able to identify him through a DNA match from DNA collected on a previous raid where he &#8220;narrowly escaped&#8221;, it added.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Gen Michael Erik Kurilla said: &#8220;Abu Khadijah was one of the most important IS members in the entire global IS organisation. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and US, allied and partner personnel in the region and beyond.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">IS once held 88,000sq km (34,000sq miles) of territory stretching from north-eastern Syria across northern Iraq and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Iraq declared the defeat of IS in December 2017 and the group was driven from its last piece of territory in 2019.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">However militants and sleeper cells continue to have a presence in various parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq&#8217;s army and police.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c9q451y218go\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A senior Islamic State (IS) group leader in Iraq and Syria has been killed in an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[817,299,342,1020,2564,2512],"class_list":["post-54435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-iraq","tag-islamic","tag-killed","tag-leader","tag-state","tag-syria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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