US says it has killed IS chief in Afghanistan

Abu Sayed had became the leader of the Islamic State- Khorasan Province in April.

The United States announced on Friday its military had killed Abu Sayed, the head of Islamic State- Khorasan Province (IS-K), in a strike on the outfit’s headquarters in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province on July 11.

Gen John W Nicholson (right) and incoming Maj Gen Robin L Fontes attend a change of command ceremony at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul on July 15, 2017. (AP)

Several other members of the outfit were killed in the strike as well.

“It’s obviously a victory on our side,” defence secretary James Mattis told reporters, adding that the significance of these strikes was that “you kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back for, you know, a day, a week, a month …, in terms of setting them back”.

Abu Sayed became the leader of IS-K in April after Afghan and US forces killed Abdul Hasib, the previous chief. Hafiz Sayed Khan, another leader, was killed last July.

US Forces-Afghanistan commander Gen John W Nicholson called Sayed’s death “another success” in the campaign against IS-K. “Abu Sayed is the third ISIS-K emir we have killed in the last year, and we will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan,” he tweeted, using another acronym for Islamic State.