(MENAFN- Arab Times) The head of the Islamic State group in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region has been killed in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan, intelligence officials and militant commanders said Saturday. The National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan spy agency, said Hafiz Saeed was among 30 IS-linked cadres killed in the strike in restive Nangarhar province, close to the Pakistani border, on Friday. Two IS-affiliated commanders in Afghanistan who said they were present when the strike happened confirmed Saeed's death to AFP.
The IS presence in Afghanistan is still thought to be at an embryonic stage and the killing of Saeed will come as a blow to the group's efforts to establish itself as a serious force. "Hafiz Saeed, ISIS leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a drone strike last night," the NDS said in a statement on Saturday. "As a result of drone strike in Achin district on gathering place of DAESH, 30 people associated with Daesh including their leader Hafiz Seed were killed." DAESH is another name for IS.
The two militant commanders, who used to be with the Taleban, speaking to AFP by phone from an undisclosed location, said they were present when the drone strike happened. The strike took place while a meeting of the commanders was going on, they said, adding that Saeed's badly mutilated body was buried soon afterwards. It comes less than six months after a drone strike in Afghanistan killed Abdul Rauf Khadim, who was thought to be the IS number two in the country.
On Monday two US drone strikes in Achin targeted suspected IS militants, killing 49 people according to local officials. Fierce clashes have been reported in recent months between fighters newly aligned with IS and Taleban cadres determined to preserve their dominance. NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in December, leaving local forces to battle the Taleban alone, but a residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.
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