(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US has announced an airstrike in Iraq that it claimed killed the deputy leader of ISIS.
US Central Command said that on March 13, its forces “conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Global ISIS #2 leader, chief of operations and the Delegated Committee Emir – Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, alias ‘Abu Khadijah.’”
President Trump also announced the killing in a post on Truth Social. “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” he said. “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. PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”
"Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed… His miserable life was terminated…” –President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9rCQge7eNd
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 15, 2025
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also announced that Abu Khadijah was killed, describing him as the “deputy caliph” of ISIS and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.”
The US has continued military operations against ISIS in Iraq in recent years despite the government repeatedly saying it doesn’t need the US’s help against ISIS remnants. In 2024, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called for the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops, and Washington and Baghdad entered talks about the US presence.
Those talks resulted in the US and Iraq announcing a deal to officially end the mission of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition by September 2025, but it said the US will remain in Iraq under a “bilateral partnership.” The Pentagon said at the time that the US was “not withdrawing from Iraq.”
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
