Iraqi security forces have killed a senior leader of the Islamic State (IS) group responsible for foreign operations, according to the country’s prime minister. US President Donald Trump later confirmed the news, stating that the leader’s “miserable life was terminated.”
Despite Iraq declaring the defeat of IS on its soil in 2017, the group’s cells remain active and continue to carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq’s army and police forces.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, described by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” was killed in the operation. Rufayi, who had been sanctioned by the United States in 2023, was the so-called governor of IS’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces and was responsible for overseeing the group’s foreign operations.
Although the exact timing of Rufayi’s death was not disclosed, Sudani praised the operation as a success of Iraqi intelligence, executed in coordination with the US-led anti-jihadist coalition.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump confirmed the operation, saying, “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. 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 US Central Command shared what appeared to be a video of the strike on X, confirming that it resulted in the death of Rufayi, described as the “Global ISIS #2 leader,” along with one other operative. The statement further noted that both individuals were wearing unexploded “suicide vests,” and that Rufayi had been identified through a DNA match.
Lingering presence
Although Iraqi forces, supported by the international coalition, defeated IS in 2017, the group has maintained a presence in Syria’s vast desert and continues to conduct attacks in rural Iraq.
In October, Iraq reported the death of nine IS commanders, including Jassim al-Mazrouei Abu Abdel Qader, the so-called governor of IS in Iraq.
IS declared a “caliphate” in 2014 after seizing large parts of Iraq and Syria, a period marked by widespread atrocities. By late 2017, Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, had reclaimed most of the territory held by IS. The group lost its last stronghold in Syria two years later, though it still maintains a presence in both countries.
Approximately 2,500 American troops remain deployed in Iraq, with the country now asserting that its security forces are capable of dealing with the jihadist threat.
In September, Iraq and the US announced that the international coalition would end its military mission in federal Iraq by the end of 2025, with the mission concluding in the autonomous Kurdistan region by September 2026.
