Last year, the Afghan intelligence agency said it believed Saeed had died in a drone attack in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar.
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The uptick in activity against the Islamic State in Afghanistan follows a twin suicide bombing in Kabul last month that killed 80 during a series of peaceful protests.
Khan, a former member of the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, had sworn allegiance to Middle East-based Islamic State.
He also said the “Taliban can not capture Afghanistan” through violence, although Kabul believes Pakistan is still backing the Taliban.
His death comes as part of a major effort to crush the Islamic State, which became a growing threat in Afghanistan earlier this year. Afghan security officials had claimed the killing of Saeed Khan but their claims later proved to be incorrect.
“During this time, U.S. forces conducted an airstrike targeting Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State in the Levant-Khorasan emir, in Achin district, Nangarhar province July 26, resulting in his death”, Trowbridge told AFP.
Saeed, who is the purported leader of the group’s Afghan and Pakistan faction – known as Islamic State of Khorasan – was traveling through the Kot district of Nangharhar when a US drone killed him, Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal told Reuters. Trowbridge said the airstrike was in the Achin district, not the Kot district.
Afghanistan’s Taliban group has frequently clashed with IS since January 2015. If Khan was killed in a drone strike in late-July, the strike, like the one against Mansour, was likely carried out under the purview of U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.
The number of fighters belonging to the group and the amount of territory held by the group has been reduced by recent Afghan military operations supported by US airstrikes.
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Five U.S. commandos were injured in combat with Islamic State fighters during the offensive, in what officials thought was the first instance of Americans being wounded in fighting against the IS in Afghanistan.
