'IS' commander for Afghanistan, Pakistan killed
July 11, 2015
The head of the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist network in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a drone strike in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, according to statements from both national intelligence services and Islamist commanders on Saturday.
Afghanistan's spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and two IS commanders who were present at the time of the attack, said Hafeez Sayeed died while attending a leaders' meeting in Achin district, near the border with Pakistan.
"As a result of a drone strike in Achin district on a gathering place of Daesh, 30 people associated with Daesh including their leader Hafeez Sayeed were killed," said the NDS in a statement, using the Arabic term for IS.
Last January, Sayeed was chosen to run the IS operation in what they call their "Khorasan province," which encompasses not only Pakistan and Afghanistan but also parts of neighboring countries, after a group of Pakistani Taliban fighters switched allegiances.
Fierce fighting has broken out in the border region since IS' expansion of influence has caused clashes between those loyal to their cause and those who side with the Taliban.
Sayeed's death comes less than six months after the region's alleged second in command for IS, Abdul Rauf, was killed in a similar drone strike in Afghanistan's restive Helmand province. A former Guantanamo Bay inmate, Rauf was also a former Taliban member who switched allegiance to the newer extremist group.
The IS Khorasan group launched its first major attack in Pakistan in May, when they killed 43 minority Shiite Muslims on a bus on their way to prayer services in Karachi.
es/sms (AP, AFP)