[AA.TR] The leader of ISIS's Afghanistan affiliate was killed in a U.S. raid earlier this week, the Pentagon said Friday.Abu Sayed, the "emir" of ISIS-Khorasan, was killed July 11 by U.S. forces during a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province
...one of the four
N2KLprovinces (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman). N2KL is the designation used by US and Coalition Forces for the rugged and very violent region opposite Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Northwest Frontier Province. Kunar is the center of the N2KL region. Its population is 95% Pashtun. It is adjacent to Bajaur Agency..
, spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.
In addition to killing other ISIS-Khorasan members, the raid "will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan", White said.
"ISIS [ISIS] leaders chose Abu Sayed to lead the group after Afghan and U.S. forces killed the previous ISIS [ISIS]-K leaders - Hafiz Sayed Khan in late July 2016, and Abdul Hasib, in late April of this year," she added, referring to the ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and its Khorasan affiliate.
U.S. forces have been directly involved in anti-ISIS raids in Afghanistan's eastern regions since an offensive in early March with their Afghan counterparts.
The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said the operation stands as "another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS [ISIS]-K".
"There is no safe haven for ISIS [ISIS]-K in Afghanistan," he said in a statement. "We will continue until they are annihilated."