The al-Iraqi militants are responsible for overseeing the oil smuggling operation to fund IS members killed by Kurdish militants last week.

"The rebel, nicknamed Abu al-Ward al-Iraqi and an unidentified IS member, was killed in a January 14 raid in Deir ez-Zor province, Syria. Al-Iraqi is responsible for surveillance. Oil smuggling and financing of IS militants are hiding, "the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on January 19 said in a statement.

The raid was the latest US-led coalition coalition operation after the Islamic State rebel leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was annihilated in October 2019. The US has announced maintaining a military presence in Iraq and Syria to wipe out the IS remnants and prevent the organization from rising again.

"The death of al-Iraqi ends the ability to fund ISIS terrorist activities in the Euphrates river valley, along the Syrian-Iraq border," said the campaign commander spokesman. Inherent Resolve Myles Caggins translation.

More than 500 American soldiers are stationed mainly in outposts in the areas of Deir ez-Zor and al-Hasakah provinces, eastern Syria, to protect oil fields and prevent them from falling into IS hands. "IS really wants to put their terrorist hands on the oil fields. We are working with our Syrian partners to prevent that from happening," Colonel Caggins said.

The US takeover and the declaration of not allowing other forces to access the oil field in eastern Syria is controversial. The Russian Defense Ministry and the Syrian government accused the United States of controlling oil fields by force and called it "state-level robbery". A confrontation took place last week when Russian military convoys tried to reach the Rumeylan oil field in al-Hasakah province and were stopped by US troops but there was no shooting.

Islamic State lost its last control zone in Syria in March 2019, but militants continued to conduct small-scale attacks in Syria and Iraq. Kurdish officials have warned that ISIS could increase its offensive in the near future.

The coalition stopped fighting ISIS in early January to protect its forces from being attacked by Iran after the US air strike killed Major General Qassem Soleimani. Two US military officials said on 15 January that the country resumed military operations against IS after a two-week hiatus.