Drone strike kills Afghan 'Daesh' leader

KABUL, Afghanistan 

A suspected U.S. drone strike has killed an alleged Daesh leader in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, the Afghan national intelligence agency has claimed.

According to the Afghan spy agency, National Security Directorate (NDS), former Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban commander Hafiz Sayed was appointed as leader of Daesh in southern Asia and the sub-continent where he called his group Daesh Khurasan.

The NDS said in a statement Saturday that Sayed was killed in an airstrike in the Takhto locality of Achin district.

“IS [Daesh] leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan (Khurasan state), Hafiz Sayed and 30 of his fighters were killed in a U.S.-led coalition force's drone strike in Achin, Nangarhar,” the statement said.

“The attack was conducted based on intelligence cooperation between the NDS and coalition forces,” it added.

At least 100 Daesh fighters in eastern Nangarhar province have been killed in the past two weeks after U.S. forces began a campaign targeting members with drone strikes.

However, alleged links between former Taliban groups in the region and Daesh in Syria and Iraq have been difficult to quantify.

The group's fighters are thought to be former Taliban militants who have rebranded themselves following territorial gains by Daesh in Iraq and Syria over the past year.

Daesh's alleged number two in Afghanistan, Gul Zaman and former Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Mullah Shahidullah Shahid – who was first to declare allegiance to Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – were killed by U.S. drone strikes in Nangarhar last week.

In a separate incident, two suspected suicide bombers were killed in the capital Kabul Saturday when their explosives-laden vests blew up prematurely, security sources said.

Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said that at least two members of a family, including a child were also injured in the incident.

“Apparently, the explosives-laden vests of the two suicide bombers went off while they were riding towards their target,” Rahimi said.

Separately, at least three children were killed and six others were injured in a bomb blast near a petrol pump station in southern Kandahar city at 4 p.m. on Saturday, provincial police spokesman Zia Durani said.

- Taliban leader captured

The Afghan intelligence agency also claimed that its forces captured an important suspected Taliban figure in southern Zabul province Saturday.

According to NDS, Mullah Faizullah was an alleged Taliban mastermind responsible for several terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, kidnapping, recruitment and fundraising activities. “He was commander of a front in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul and Ghazni.

“Faizullah was a member of Taliban`s military council based in Pakistani city of Quetta, who was apprehended during a special operation in Daichopan district of Zabul province,” the NDS said in a statement. 

Despite recent talks between Afghan government representatives and the Taliban in Islamabad, the fighting in Afghanistan has escalated following the launch of the Taliban’s spring offensive in April.

Deadly clash in Pakistan

Across the border in Pakistan, at least nine suspected Taliban militants and four Pakistani army soldiers were killed in a clash in the South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday, the Pakistani military’s official media wing said.

According to the Pakistani army, the soldiers’ convoy was ambushed in Laddah town, located 35 kilometers off Wana city. Four troops were also injured in the incident, it added.