Baghdad – Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service announced today, Friday, 19 September 2025, that a senior ISIS commander was killed in a cross-border operation inside Syria, carried out in coordination with the U.S.-led coalition.
In a statement, the agency identified the target as Omar Abdul Qader Bassam, known as “Abdul Rahman al-Halabi”, who oversaw ISIS’s external operations and so-called “distant provinces.”
According to Iraqi officials, al-Halabi was directly involved in the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Lebanon and had planned attacks in Europe and the United States that were thwarted through international intelligence cooperation.
The statement said the operation followed “months of precise surveillance and judicial coordination,” culminating in a coalition airstrike that killed al-Halabi. Iraqi authorities described his death as a “strategic loss” for ISIS, noting that at least six senior commanders have been eliminated in similar operations in recent months.
Earlier Friday, a coalition-led raid in the central Syrian village of Jreijes reportedly killed two people, according to local sources. The operation, which targeted a house on the village outskirts, was accompanied by heightened security activity from Syrian interim authority-backed forces.
On August 20, another ISIS commander, identified as Iraqi national Salah Nouman, was killed in a U.S.-led raid in Syria’s Idlib province. Nouman, who went by the alias “Ali,” was described by Syrian security sources as one of the group’s most wanted figures.
