A U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed the second-highest-ranking leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) Thursday, authorities announced.
A U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed the second-highest-ranking leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) Thursday, authorities announced.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces — together with Iraqi Intelligence and Security Forces — “conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Global ISIS #2 leader, Chief of Global Operations and the Delegated Committee Emir – Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, alias ‘Abu Khadijah’, and one other ISIS operative.”
“Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social. “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!” (RELATED: ‘We Will Find You, And We Will Kill You’: Unclassified Video Shows Trump-Ordered Strike On Terror Group’s Senior ‘Attack Planner’)
A video accompanying CENTCOM’s statement shows what appears to be a vehicle traveling along a road before becoming enveloped in an explosion, then veering off course in a plume of smoke.
