Islamic State leader for Iraq and Syria killed, Iraq says

BAGHDAD — The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with U.S.-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.

“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the statement said.

A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai’s death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat IS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS.” He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront IS, and said it would soon begin work.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad . Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad. The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the U.S. invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad’s government in Syria.

But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.

“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.

Strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he said.

The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an IS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.

While Syria’s new rulers — led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — have pursued IS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.

The U.S. and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with U.S. forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

When the agreement was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of IS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to beat back the remaining cells.

But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to power in late 2022.

Associated Press staff writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

巴格达——伊拉克总理周五宣布，伊拉克和叙利亚伊斯兰国头目在伊拉克被击毙，此次行动由伊拉克国家情报局成员与美国领导的联军部队联合开展。

“伊拉克人民继续取得战胜黑暗势力和恐怖主义的辉煌胜利，”总理穆罕默德·什叶派苏丹尼在X（前身为Twitter）上发表声明称。

声明称，阿卜杜拉·马基·莫斯莱赫·里法伊（Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai），又名“阿布·哈迪贾”（Abu Khadija），是该武装组织的“副哈里发”，也是“伊拉克乃至全世界最危险的恐怖分子之一”。

一名安全官员称，此次行动是在伊拉克西部安巴尔省进行的空袭。另一名官员表示，行动发生在周四晚间，但里法伊的死讯是在周五才得到确认的。由于未获授权公开置评，他们要求匿名。

就在同一天，叙利亚最高外交官首次访问伊拉克，两国在访问期间承诺共同打击“伊斯兰国”。

伊拉克外交部长福阿德·侯赛因在新闻发布会上表示，“叙利亚和伊拉克社会面临着共同的挑战，特别是打击伊斯兰国恐怖分子的挑战。” 他说，双方官员在访问期间“详细讨论了伊斯兰国的活动，无论是在叙利亚-伊拉克边境、叙利亚境内还是伊拉克境内”。

侯赛因提到叙利亚、伊拉克、土耳其、约旦和黎巴嫩在最近于安曼举行的一次会议上成立的打击“伊斯兰国”的作战指挥中心，并表示该指挥中心即将开始运作。

叙利亚前总统巴沙尔·阿萨德下台后，伊拉克和叙利亚的关系变得有些紧张。苏丹尼在伊朗支持的各派系联盟的支持下上台，而德黑兰曾是阿萨德的主要支持者。现任叙利亚临时总统艾哈迈德·沙拉此前名为阿布·穆罕默德·戈拉尼，曾在2003年美国入侵伊拉克后作为基地组织成员在伊拉克作战，后来又在叙利亚与阿萨德政府作战。

但叙利亚临时外交部长阿萨德·哈桑·希巴尼则着重强调了两国之间的历史渊源。

他说：“纵观历史，巴格达和大马士革一直是阿拉伯和伊斯兰世界的首都，彼此分享知识、文化和经济。”

他表示，加强两国伙伴关系“不仅有利于我们两国人民，还有助于地区稳定，使我们减少对外部势力的依赖，更好地掌握自己的命运”。

此次行动和访问正值伊拉克官员担忧叙利亚阿萨德政权倒台后“伊斯兰国”死灰复燃之际。

虽然叙利亚的新统治者——由伊斯兰主义前叛乱组织“沙姆解放组织”（Hayat Tahrir al-Sham）领导——自掌权以来一直在打击“伊斯兰国”的残余势力，但一些人担心整体安全局势的崩溃可能会让该组织卷土重来。

美国和伊拉克去年宣布达成协议，将于 2025 年 9 月前逐步结束以美国为首的打击伊斯兰国组织的联军在伊拉克的军事任务，届时美军将撤离在该国驻扎了二十年的一些基地。

当达成结束联军在伊拉克任务的协议时，伊拉克政治领导人表示，伊斯兰国的威胁已得到控制，他们不再需要华盛顿的帮助来击退剩余的残余势力。

但阿萨德在 12 月的倒台导致一些人重新评估了这一立场，其中包括协调框架的成员。协调框架是由什叶派、与伊朗结盟的政党组成的联盟，该联盟在 2022 年底将现任伊拉克总理穆罕默德·什叶派苏丹尼推上了权力宝座。

美联社驻贝鲁特记者艾比·塞维尔对本报道亦有贡献。