Islamic State's Afghanistan leader killed, officials say

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan -- believed to be the mastermind behind several high-profile attacks including an assault on a military hospital that claimed at least 50 lives -- has been killed, US and Afghan officials said, according to AFP.

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.

"He had ordered the attack on 400 bed hospital in Kabul that resulted in the death and injuries of a number of our countrymen, women," it said.

"The Afghan government is committed to continuing its operations against Daesh and other terrorist groups until they are annihilated," it added, using another name for IS, which is also referred to as ISIS.

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

First emerging in 2015, IS's local affiliate in Afghanistan overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, but their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban.

The group has claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks, including an audacious assault on Afghanistan's largest military hospital in March, when gunmen dressed as doctors stormed the heavily guarded facility and threw grenades into crowded wards.