The State Department past year designated Khan a global terrorist, saying he is the leader of the Islamic State in Khorasan, which includes former members of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban.
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Besides them, retired security officials and diplomats who had dealt with Afghan Taliban matters assisted and facilitated the return, officials said.
On August 6, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, sought the return of the passengers from the terror group after a Taliban commander claimed that they were “in safe hands”.
“We think we’ve reduced their numbers fairly significantly in the last six months”, Gen. John Nicholson, the top USA military commander in Afghanistan, told Pentagon reporters in a video briefing two weeks ago. His death is believed to be a huge blow to the infamous terrorist organization in the region that is already awash with many extremist groups such as al Qaeda and Taliban.
Trowbridge’s statement said Khan had been known to “directly participate in attacks against United States and coalition forces, and the actions of his network terrorized Afghans, especially in Nangarhar”.
The crew included retired Pakistani military officers and a Russian navigator, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported at the time. Officials said USA and Afghan special forces carried out the operation.
Hafiz Saeed Khan, leader of so-called Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, died in a U.S. drone strike last month, the USA believes. Trowbridge said the airstrike was in Achin district, as opposed to Kot district.
Khan was declared a terrorist by the State Department previous year, dubbing him the IS head of the “Khorasan province”.
The authorities in Pakistan said the helicopter was on its way to Russsia for fix works when it crash-landed in the restive Logar province of Afghanistan.
Taliban and al Qaeda are bitter rivals of the Islamic State.
A spokesman for the US -led mission in Afghanistan said the equipment was lost when USA forces had to move a casualty collection area because they came under fire and denied that any US personnel had been captured.
Pakistan Army Chief, General Raheel Sharif, called on the commander of USA troops in Afghanistan, The Afghan government and Afghan National Army to take them on board in the rescue efforts.
Colonel Michael Lawhorn, a spokesperson for the USA military, said USA forces in Afghanistan “are aware of those reports and we are looking into it”. That is a decrease in number from 3,000 in January.
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He was said to have been killed in Nangharhar, and if his death did indeed take place on 26 July, it came the day after another top IS chief was among 122 militants killed by the Afghan army in the same province. The militants are mainly in the country’s eastern region.
