US confirms killing of Abu Sayed in Kunar raid

KABUL, during a raid in eastern Kunar province.

“This operation is another success in our campaign to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017,” Gen. Nicholson, commander of the US and NATO forces in the country. Said in a statement,

Sayed is the third ISIS-K chief the US troops have killed in the last year. “We will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan.”

Earlier, Kunar police chief Brig. Maj. Gen. Juma Gul Himmat said 11 Daesh rebels were killed in Tuesday’s drone strike in Watapur district of Kunar. Three commanders were among the dead, he said.

A source in the insurgent organisation confided to Pajhwok Afghan News that Sayed had previously been was the second-in-command in the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP). He joined Daesh last year.

Hailing from the Bajaur tribal region, bordering Kunar, he was also called Qari Sayed by his friends.

On Friday, the Pentagon said several other members of the militant outfit were also eliminated in Tuesday’s airstrike. However, it did not give a specific fatality figure.

Sayed was chosen to head the group after US and Afghan forces killed his predecessors Hafiz Sayed Khan in a drone strike in 2016 and Abdul Hasib earlier this year.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement: “The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group’s plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan.”

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