WORLD

Head of Islamic State in Afghanistan reported killed with 10 cohorts in U.S.-led attack

Security personnel inspect the side of a suicide attack near the office of the Election Commission in Jalalabad city, capital of eastern Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018. At least two people were killed and four others wounded Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated his vest full of explosives near the office of the Election Commission in eastern Nangarhar province, officials said. | MOHAMMAD ANWAR DANISHYAR / VIA AP

Reuters

Aug 27, 2018

KABUL –

The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, was killed in a strike on the group's hideouts in Nangarhar province on Saturday night, authorities said on Sunday.

Ten other members of the militant group were also killed in a joint ground and air operation by Afghan and foreign forces, the National Directorate of Security in Kabul said in a statement.

A large amount of heavy and light weapons and ammunition were destroyed during raids on two Islamic State hideouts.

The jihadi group's Aamaq's news agency carried no comment on the issue.

Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the United States carried out a strike in Afghanistan on Saturday against a "senior leader of a designated terrorist organization."

The provincial governor of Nangarhar said Erhabi was the fourth Islamic State leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2017.

The group has developed a stronghold in Nangarhar, on Afghanistan's porous eastern border with Pakistan, and become one of the country's most dangerous militant groups.

The local affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces.

Former ISIS-K leader Abu Sayed was killed in a strike in the eastern province of Nangarhar and Sayed's predecessors were killed in joint U.S. and Afghan operations.

The exact number of Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan is difficult to calculate because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000.

More than 150 Islamic State fighters surrendered to Afghan security forces this month in the northwestern province of Jawzjan, where the group is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighboring Turkmenistan.