Hafiz Sayed Khan, ISIS’s top leader in Afghanistan, was killed in a US drone strike on July 26 in eastern Afghanistan, according to a USA defense official.
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It was the U.S. military’s second killing of an anti-American Islamist militant leader in the region in the past three months.
Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed in a US drone strike in the Kot district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province on July 26, an unidentified USA defense official was quoted as saying on August 12.
Khan, a former commander of the Pakistani Taliban, pledged allegiance to ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a year ago.
The IS leader was targeted on July 26 in Nangarhar, a southern Afghan province, where the joint special forces of the US and Afghanistan were conducting anti-IS operations.
Mr Trowbridge says Khan’s death will “disrupt” IS operations in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban has freed the crew of a Pakistani helicopter that crash-landed in Afghanistan’s Logar province on August 4, Pakistani intelligence officials have said.
Roughly a week later, the Islamic State posted pictures of captured US equipment and identification cards from a USA soldier who had been involved in the operations.
Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, earlier said Khan was killed in a drone strike.
Khan’s death marks another accomplishment for USA and coalition forces in the Middle Eastern nation, which has seen a continuous American presence since 2001.
Local tribal leaders say the Taliban, a stronger group than IS, has forged an informal alliance with the jihadists after a year of fierce rivalry in order to effectively combat government forces.
Khan was believed to have been killed in 2015 by a drone attack in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
Khan was known as the Emir of ISIS-Khorasan, the name of the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan that has operated mainly in remote areas of eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan. If Khan is indeed dead, it is unclear who would replace him.
Hafiz Saeed, a top ISIS commander in Afghanistan, was killed last month by a USA air strike.
The uptick in activity against the Islamic State in Afghanistan comes on the heels of a twin suicide bombing in Kabul last month that killed 80 during a series of peaceful protests. The number of Islamic State militants in Afghanistan was estimated to be about 3,000 at its peak in January, according to coalition statistics, far fewer than the 25,000 to 35,000 Taliban militants.
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It is the second US killing of a prominent militant in the region in months.
