![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-300x200.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
Iraqi security forces have killed a senior Islamic State, ISIS group leader responsible for foreign operations, according to the country’s prime minister, with US President Donald Trump saying later Friday his “miserable life was terminated”.
Although Iraq proclaimed in 2017 the defeat of the jihadist group on its territory, IS cells have remained active and carry out sporadic attacks against Iraq’s army and police.
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufayi “was considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world”, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on social media platform X.
The jihadist, sanctioned by the United States in 2023, was IS’s so-called governor of the group’s Syrian and Iraqi provinces, according to the Iraqi premier.
Rufayi was also “responsible for the foreign operations offices”, Sudani said.
He did not say when Rufayi was killed but applauded the operation by Iraqi intelligence that was carried out in cooperation with the US-led anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq.
“Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government.”
The US Central Command posted on X what appeared to be a video of the strike, which it said “killed the Global ISIS #2 leader… and one other ISIS operative.”
It said that both fighters had been wearing unexploded “suicide vests” and that it had identified Rufayi through a DNA match.
Lingering presence
Last October, Baghdad said Iraqi forces had killed nine IS group commanders. They included the so-called governor of Iraq for IS, Jassim al-Mazrouei Abu Abdel Qader, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said at the time.
IS in 2014 declared a “caliphate” after capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria, beginning a rule marked by atrocities.
Iraqi forces backed by the international coalition defeated IS in late 2017. The group lost its last territory in Syria two years later.
The group has, however, maintained a presence in Syria’s vast desert, and in Iraq largely carries out attacks in rural areas.
About 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq, which now considers its security forces capable of confronting the jihadists.
The US and Iraq announced in late September that the international coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq within a year, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
