Big blow to IS as group’s Afghan-­Pak leader killed

PESHAWAR/WASHINGTON:The leader of Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a US drone strike on July 26, a Pentagon spokesperson said on

PESHAWAR/WASHINGTON:The leader of Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a US drone strike on July 26, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday after the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan announced the news to Reuters.

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The death of Hafiz Saeed Khan is a blow to efforts by Islamic State - also known as ISIS or Daesh - to expand from its heartlands in Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan, already crowded with jihadist movements including the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Khan has been reported dead before. But a claim by Afghan intelligence agents last year that he had been killed was never confirmed.On Friday, however, Afghan ambassador Omar Zakhilwal told Reuters he had seen confirmation from Afghan security forces.

It is the second US killing of a prominent militant in the region in months. In May, a US drone killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a strike in Pakistan.

In terms of its own territory, Islamic State has been largely confined to a handful of districts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, where IS militants - mostly defectors from the Taliban - are blamed for raiding villages and government outposts.

Still, worries that Islamic State might be expanding its operational reach heightened this week when the group took credit for an attack on a Pakistani hospital that killed at least 74 people in the southwestern city of Quetta. A Pakistani Taliban faction also claimed responsibility.