An airstrike killed a senior Islamic State group leader believed to be the head of the group in Iraq and Syria on Friday, in a joint Iraqi and U.S. operation using intelligence from both countries, Iraq’s prime minister said.

A senior U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the strike and said that special operations forces from both countries were in Anbar province, in Iraq, gathering material from the strike site.

The Islamic State group’s leader, Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, who was also known as Abu Khadija, was “one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said.

Iraqi forces have conducted an aggressive anti-terrorism campaign over the last two years, disrupting, killing and detaining a number of the Islamic State group’s cells operating in the country with backing from the United States.

The killing of a senior Islamic State group leader comes as the group has been reconstituting in Syria.

— The New York Times