The head of the Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan, a former Pakistani Taliban member named Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed in an U.S. drone strike last month, an Afghan official told Reuters Friday.
According to the report, Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal told Reuters that the July 26 strike targeted Khan and other Islamic State leaders in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangharhar province.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the United States had conducted an airstrike targeting Khan several weeks ago, but said officials were still assessing whether he was killed in that strike. He was also reported killed last year.
Unforgiving terrain and a continuous enemy presence on the ground often makes it difficult to assess the outcome of an airstrike launched to assassinate a specific target, usually forcing U.S. intelligence agencies to rely on intercepted communications to ensure that the intended target was killed.
American forces have been active in the region where the strikes took place. Late last month, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John Nicholson, told reporters that five U.S. special operation troops had been wounded alongside their Afghan counterparts while clearing parts of Nangharar Province. Roughly a week later, the Islamic State posted pictures of captured U.S. equipment and identification cards from a U.S. soldier who had been involved in the operations. Some of the captured gear included a disposable rocket launcher, grenades and an encrypted radio.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan claimed the equipment had been lost when U.S. forces had been forced to move a casualty collection area under fire and denied that any U.S. personnel had been captured.
In January, President Barack Obama authorized new measures allowing U.S. forces in Afghanistan to target Islamic State fighters in the country under counterterrorism rules of engagements usually reserved to target al-Qaida and other terrorist factions. Last month Nicholson told reporters that the Islamic State’s presence in Afghanistan has been cut in half, from some 3,000 fighters to 1,500 following heavy airstrikes and frequent ground operations alongside Afghan forces.
The Islamic State in Afghanistan is a relatively new phenomenon, gaining traction in the war-torn country over the last two years. According to Nicholson, currently 70 percent of the Islamic State’s membership in Afghanistan is composed of former Pakistani Taliban members who joined the group earlier this year. If Khan is indeed dead, it is unclear who would replace him.