‘His Miserable Life Was Terminated’: U.S. Military Strikes ISIS No. 2 Terrorist Leader Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai

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.

WATCH: Footage of the head of ISIS being taken out by the U.S. military

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!”

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.

CENTCOM Forces Kill ISIS Chief of Global Operations Who Also Served as ISIS #2

On March 13, U.S. Central Command forces, in cooperation with Iraqi Intelligence and Security Forces, conducted a precision airstrike in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Global ISIS #2 leader,… pic.twitter.com/rWeEoUY7Lw

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 15, 2025

Local forces examined the site of the strike and found the two terrorists dead while clad in unexploded suicide vests and possessing multiple weapons, CENTCOM added.

The forces identified al-Rifai as his DNA matched that collected from the site of a previous raid from which he barely escaped, CENTCOM said.

The strike came two days before Trump ordered “decisive and powerful Military action against the [Iran-backed] Houthi terrorists in Yemen” Saturday for their “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other” assets. He told the Houthis that their time was up and warned Iran to stop supporting the Houthis or else “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”

U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said the strike was a notice to terrorists as “President Trump will find you.”

“Peace Through Strength,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said.

“The Iraqis continue their remarkable victories against the forces of darkness and terrorism,” wrote Iraqi Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who also praised the forces.

Al-Rifai was the “Emir” of ISIS’s highest decision-making council, making him responsible for the transnational Salafi jihadist quasi-state’s global operations, logistics and planning, and much of its finances, according to CENTCOM.

Holding “the so-called position of (Deputy Caliph),” al-Rifai “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” P.M. al-Sudani wrote, while also congratulating his country and “all peace-loving nations on this significant security achievement.”

“Abu Khadijah was one of the most important ISIS members in the entire global ISIS organization. We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organizations that threaten our homeland and U.S., allied and partner personnel in the region and beyond,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM’s commander.

ISIS’s leader and self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — trapped in a surprise Trump administration-led military operation codenamed Operation Kayla Mueller after the American humanitarian worker who had been abducted by ISIS and killed — blew himself and two of his children up with a suicide belt as a military K-9 chased him down a tunnel Oct. 26, 2019. Russia had claimed it killed the terrorist two years earlier.

CENTCOM buried him at sea, NPR reported. His son had reportedly been killed in a suicide attack on a Syrian battlefield July 2018.

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