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IS Afghanistan Leader Killed

IS Afghanistan Leader Killed
IS Afghanistan Leader Killed

The head of the self-styled Islamic State in Afghanistan — described as the mastermind behind high-profile attacks including an assault on a military hospital that claimed at least 50 lives — has been killed, US and Afghan officials said.

Abdul Hasib, whose group is affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, was killed last month in a targeted raid by special forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the presidential palace in Kabul said in a statement, AFP reported.

The second leader of the terrorist group to be killed by US and Afghan forces in less than nine months, his death came days after Washington dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on IS hideouts in the same area.

Analysts described him as "obscure", but authorities ascribed responsibility to him for assaults in Kabul, including the savage attack on a military hospital in March when assailants stabbed bedridden patients and threw grenades into crowded wards.

"He had ordered the attack" on the hospital, the presidential statement said, adding that Kabul will fight IS and other militant groups "until they are annihilated".

NATO commander in Afghanistan General John Nicholson confirmed Hasib's killing and warned that "any IS member that comes to Afghanistan will meet the same fate".

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