On his Truth Social platform Friday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said: “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.

Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifa was head of IS's most senior decision-making body, the US Central Command said.

The killing comes as the group has been reconstituting in Syria, carrying out more attacks than at any time since it lost control of its territory nearly six years ago.