ANKARA

Iraqi security forces killed a top ISIS (Daesh) figure responsible for “foreign operations,” the country’s prime minister announced on Friday.

In a statement, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said the Iraqi security forces in cooperation with the international coalition forces "successfully eliminated the terrorist Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay'i, alias Abu Khadija."

He described the slain ISIS figure as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world."

In 2017, Iraq declared victory over ISIS by reclaiming all territories the terrorist group controlled since the summer of 2014, which was estimated to be about a third of the country’s territory.

The group, however, still maintains sleeper cells in large areas in Iraq and occasionally launches sporadic attacks.