ISIS leader Salah Numan Al Jubouri, who was in charge of the group's financing, was killed in Syria on Wednesday in an operation between Iraqi troops, the US coalition and Syrian forces, sources have told The National.
Al Jubouri was also in charge of ISIS fighters' movement between Syria and Iraq, the sources added.
"Coalition forces carried out an air drop targeting a house in the town of Atme" in Idlib province, state television quoted an unidentified security source as saying. The coalition has yet to release any statements about an operation in north-west Syria.
Syrian state television said the forces raided a home where Al Jubouri was living with his family and fatally shot him after he jumped from the balcony of their first-floor flat.
An Iraqi security source, requesting anonymity, told AFP that Al Jubouri was the brother of a top ISIS leader who was killed in 2020 in a coalition strike in the eastern Deir Ezzor province of Syria.
The US-led coalition has often carried out strikes in Idlib, attacking ISIS officials, including a raid announced in June. Several former leaders of the group have been killed in the province, including in coalition strikes.
The latest mission comes as a change in the status of the US's military mission in Iraq has been confirmed to The National. It said it is transitioning to a bilateral security partnership. The move comes before next month's scheduled withdrawal from areas of the country.
Iraq and the US announced an agreement in September last year, under which the US-led coalition's mission against ISIS would end by next month. The remainder of US troops will leave the country by the end of 2026.
The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS was formed in 2014 to fight the group, which took control of large areas of the country in a swift operation. The coalition's military operations began with air strikes and expanded to include advising and training Iraqi security troops.
ISIS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but sleeper cells still carry out attacks in both countries.
In recent years, attacks have decreased, but with the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, some experts fear attacks may increase.
During a UN Security Council briefing in New York, the UN’s top counter-terrorism official warned that Syria remains highly fragile under its new authorities, with ISIS exploiting security gaps and stockpiling weapons.
ISIS also continues to "engage in covert operations and incite sectarian tensions in the country”, said Vladimir Voronkov, Under Secretary General for Counter-terrorism. He said concern about stockpiles of weapons falling into the hands of terrorists "has, unfortunately, materialised”.
US ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council that both Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria were “actively fomenting instability by stockpiling weapons, recruiting fighters, conducting deadly attacks, and planning external operations”.
Ms Shea urged all member states to work with the Syrian government to counter the threat from the groups and to support reforms to UN sanctions that would “enable stability in the country”.
