Iraqi Minister Laim said the airstrikes killed a senior Islamic state leader who is believed to be head of Iraq and Syrian groups on Friday in a joint Iraq-Syrian operation that was believed to be head of Iraq and Syrian groups.
A senior US military official, who is discussing operational issues on condition of anonymity, confirmed the strike, saying that the special operations forces of both countries are in Amber, Iraq, and said they are gathering material from the strike site.
Islamic State leader Abdallah Makki Musli al-Rufaiy, also known as Abu Kadiya, was “one of the world's most dangerous terrorists,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Sia al-Sudani said in a statement.
The Iraqi military has conducted aggressive anti-terrorism campaigns over the past two years, disrupting, killing and detaining many Islamic state cells operating within the country along with support From the US.
The killing of senior leaders of the Middle Eastern Islamic State is because the group has been restructured in Syria and has been carrying out many attacks at any time since it lost control of its territory almost six years ago. According to the United Nations, in 2024 there were over 300 attacks in Syria alone.
Al-Rufay'i was considered one of the senior leaders of Islamic nations in the region and was believed to hold multiple jobs, according to the latest UN report, including helping coordinate fighter jets in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
He is the third leader of Islamic states in Iraq and Syria that have been killed since 2019. In the past, new leaders have been appointed relatively quickly, but their identities may not be widely known for some time.
Since 2019 when the Islamic states were defeated in Iraq and Syria, it once ruled almost a third of the geographical regions of both countries, which has reconstructed itself and transformed its organization. It had already expanded to a new country before losing its territory, Other branches were secondary to the hearts of Iraq and Syria.
According to Aaron Zerlin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, more than 12 affiliates have evolved across three continents, and has been studying Islamic nations for many years. Some activities, such as the media, are controlled in a more central way, while others are left to their branches.
According to the United Nations, the most deadly attacks in Russia and Iran in 2024 were carried out by operatives from the Islamic State, believed to be working with an affiliate known as Afghanistan-based Is-Khorasan.
Eric Schmidt In Washington, he contributed the report.
