Top Daesh commander killed in Afghanistan

(MENAFN- Arab News) KABUL: Afghanistan said Saturday that recent US airstrikes it assisted destroyed the top leadership of a fledging Daesh affiliate there potentially striking a major blow to an insurgent group already targeted by local Taliban fighters.
While US officials declined to confirm it Afghan authorities said an American airstrike Friday killed Daesh affiliate leader Hafeez Sayeed and more than 30 other militants.
That comes after Afghan officials said another US airstrike Tuesday killed the affiliate's second-highest official Gul Zaman and six others including a former Pakistani Taliban spokesman named Shahidullah Shahid who earlier had joined the group.
'With the killings of Hafiz Sayeed Gul Zaman and Shahidullah Shahid who were the high-profile figures of Daesh in Afghanistan we have destroyed the base of ISIS' said Abdul Hassib Sediqi a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security using two alternate names for the militant group.
Sediqi offered no photographs or other evidence to show the strikes killed the Daesh affiliate's top leaders though he said Afghan authorities verified a corpse from Friday's strike was Sayeed. Militants with the group have not discussed the strikes online.
NATO officials declined to immediately comment on the claim saying they would issue a statement later Saturday. US Army Col. Brian Tribus a spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan confirmed Americans carried out an airstrike Friday in Nangarhar's Achin District but declined to comment further. NATO and US officials have not commented on Tuesday's strike earlier discussed by Afghan officials.
Daesh which holds a self-declared 'caliphate' across roughly third of Syria and neighboring Iraq has inspired militants across the greater Middle East and Africa to declare allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. The militants include those in Egypt who purportedly claimed a car bombing early Saturday at the Italian Consulate in Cairo that killed one person.
They also include militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan the target of a US-led invasion after the 2001 Al-Qaeda terror attacks on America.
Disenchanted extremists from the Taliban and other organizations impressed by Daesh's territorial gains and slick online propaganda began raising its black flag in extremist-dominated areas of both countries in recent months.
Analysts and officials say the number of Daesh supporters in the Afghan-Pakistan region remains small and that the group faces resistance from militants with strong tribal links. However the rise of even a small Daesh affiliate could further destabilize the region and complicate US and NATO efforts to end the 13-year Afghan war.
In April a motorcycle-riding suicide bomber attacked a line of people waiting outside a bank in eastern Afghanistan killing at least 35 and wounding 125 in an assault the country's president blamed on Daesh. Other violence has been blamed on Daesh affiliate including gun battles between its followers and the Taliban who warned Daesh to stay out of the country. Afghan officials have suggested the Daesh affiliate had a presence in three of its provinces including Nangarhar which borders Pakistan and frequently sees militants cross its borders.
Sediqi the National Directorate of Security spokesman said Afghan officials had created a special intelligence unit to target Daesh and its work directly aided the US airstrikes.
'Daesh activities have been totally disturbed here and it is not easy for them to replace all these high-ranking figures any time soon' he said.
Meanwhile Saturday the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said army airstrikes killed at least 28 people in Daesh-held town of Al-Bab in northern Syria including 19 civilians. The Local Coordination Committees group said the barrel bombings killed 29 people.
Al-Bab is a frequent target of Syrian army strikes that often kill civilians. On May 31 Syrian army airstrikes that hit a packed market in Al-Bab killed around 70 people most of them civilians.