US Central Command Says It Killed ISIS Leader in Eastern Syria

Passersby and gunmen gather at the site of a reported drone strike in Bzaah town near al-Bab in Syria's Aleppo governorate on July 7, 2023. (AFP)
Passersby and gunmen gather at the site of a reported drone strike in Bzaah town near al-Bab in Syria's Aleppo governorate on July 7, 2023. (AFP)
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US Central Command Says It Killed ISIS Leader in Eastern Syria

Passersby and gunmen gather at the site of a reported drone strike in Bzaah town near al-Bab in Syria's Aleppo governorate on July 7, 2023. (AFP)
Passersby and gunmen gather at the site of a reported drone strike in Bzaah town near al-Bab in Syria's Aleppo governorate on July 7, 2023. (AFP)

The US Central Command said on Sunday it conducted a drone strike on July 7 that killed an ISIS leader in Eastern Syria.

It used the same MQ-9 drones in the attack that had "earlier in the day been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours", it said in a statement.

"US Central Command conducted a strike in Syria that resulted in the death of Usamah al-Muhajir, an ISIS leader in eastern Syria," it said without giving any more details on al-Muhajir.

Washington has in the last year stepped up raids and operations against suspected ISIS operatives in Syria, killing and arresting various of its leaders who had taken shelter in areas under Türkiye-backed opposition control after the group lost its last territory in Syria in 2019.

The US-led campaign which killed former ISIS head Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who had declared himself the "caliph of all Muslims", has since targeted its surviving leaders, many of whom are thought to have planned attacks abroad.

US military commanders say ISIS remains a significant threat within the region, however, though its capabilities have been degraded and its ability to re-establish its network weakened.

ISIS controlled one-third of Iraq and Syria at its peak in 2014. Though it was beaten back in both countries, its militants continue to wage insurgent attacks.



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.