Iraqi security forces have killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi, a senior Islamic State (IS) leader responsible for foreign operations, in a joint operation with the U.S.-led coalition.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced Rufayi’s death on social media platform X, describing him as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.” Rufayi, sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023, was the so-called governor of IS’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces and oversaw the group’s foreign operations offices.
U.S. President Donald Trump later confirmed the militant’s death, stating on Truth Social that Rufayi had been “relentlessly hunted down” by coalition forces. “His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government,” Trump wrote.
The U.S. Central Command also posted a video of the strike on X, stating that the operation killed the “Global ISIS #2 leader” and another IS operative. It added that both fighters had been wearing unexploded suicide vests and that Rufayi’s identity was confirmed through DNA analysis.
Despite Iraq declaring IS defeated in 2017, the group remains active, carrying out sporadic attacks on Iraqi security forces, particularly in rural areas. Last October, Iraqi forces killed nine IS commanders, including Jassim al-Mazrouei Abu Abdel Qader, the so-called IS governor of Iraq.
IS originally seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a self-proclaimed “caliphate” marked by brutal atrocities. Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, recaptured IS-held territory by late 2017, with the group losing its last Syrian stronghold in 2019.
While IS’s territorial control has been dismantled, the group continues to operate in Syria’s vast desert and in remote parts of Iraq.
Around 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq to support counterterrorism operations. However, the U.S. and Iraq announced in September that the international coalition would conclude its mission in federal Iraq within a year, with a complete withdrawal from the Kurdistan region expected by September 2026.
