15 July, 2017
Abu Sayed, head of ISIS's so-called Khorasan Province in the war-torn country, was killed on Tuesday at his group's headquarters east of Kabul, the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The Pentagon says the leader of the Daesh (ISIS) group's Afghanistan branch has been killed in a U.S. raid in the northeastern province of Kunar.
US officials said that Sayed became the group's leader after the previous chief, Abdul Hasib, was killed by American forces in April. Salvin said he was killed in an airstrike by a USA drone.
In April, a team of 50 U.S. Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos assaulted a hamlet in Achin, a district of Nangahar province, killing Abdul Hasib, Sayed's predecessor as commander of ISIS in Afghanistan, and roughly 30 other militants.
Initially the Pentagon identified Sayed being killed in a "raid". Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the previous year and we will continue until they are annihilated.
Gen. John Nicholson, Commander, US Forces Afghanistan said in a statement, "This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017".
The compound used by Hasib in Nangarhar province was not far from the spot where on April 13, the USA military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, hitting ISIL positions. "There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan".
Four other ISIS-K members were also killed in the strike, according the White.
ISIL established a presence in Afghanistan in 2015 and overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border.
