The leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed Orakzai, also known as Sad Arhabi, was killed along with 10 other members of ISIL's Afghan branch in eastern Nangarhar province, according to TOLONews.
Sad Arhabi and 10 other ISIL’s members died in a joint operation with coalition forces on Saturday night, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said in a statement on Sunday.
The airstrike was carried out against Jungle village in Khogyani district during an operation against two local Daesh strongholds, TOLONews reported using Arabic acronym (Daesh) for ISIL.
US forces in Afghanistan said they conducted an air raid in the location described by Afghan officials, which “targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization,” according to Al Jazeera.
TOLONews says Sad Arhabi was the third ISIL leader killed in Afghanistan since the group emerged there in early 2015.
Arhabi reportedly succeeded Abdul Hasib Logari in April last year, who had in turn succeeded Hafiz Saeed Khan who was killed in a US drone strike in late 2016.
Some experts say ISIL has a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, mainly in Nangarhar – the birthplace of the group's Afghan branch – but more recently in the northern province of Jowzjan where it is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighboring Turkmenistan.
ISIL in Afghanistan is also known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan.
