Key ISIL leader in Afghanistan confirmed killed

Abdul Hasib took charge of the extremist was killed in a raid led Afghan special forces in Nangarhar province

Burnt trees are seen the site of America’s largest non-nuclear bomb – the MOAB, also known as the ‘mother of all bombs’ – which struck the Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan on April 23, 2017. Parwiz/ReutersShow less

KABUL // The head of ISIL 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.

Abdul Hasib, whose group is affiliated with ISIL in Iraq and Syria, was killed last month in a targeted raid by special forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the presidential palace said on Sunday.

“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,” said the statement.

“The Afghan government is committed to continuing its operations against Daesh and other terrorist groups until they are annihilated,” it added.

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”.

The local affiliate of ISIL – sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan – first emerged in 2015, fighting both the Taliban as well as Afghan and US forces.

It is believed to maintain links with the main ISIL movement in Iraq and Syria but has considerable operational independence.

The group overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, in 2015 but their part in the Afghan conflict had been largely overshadowed by the operations against the Taliban.

They have claimed responsibility for a series of 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.

According to the US Forces-Afghanistan, the local ISIL presence peaked at between 2,500 to 3,000 but defections and recent battlefield losses have reduced their number to a maximum of 800.

Defeating the group remains one of the top US priorities in Afghanistan and last month, the US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on the extremist group’s hideouts in eastern Afghanistan, triggering global shock waves.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, dubbed the “Mother of All Bombs”, killed at least 95 extremists, according to the Afghan defence ministry.

After a steady downsizing of US troop numbers since 2011, US military commanders say they need to strengthen the numbers on the ground to better support Afghan forces and help retake territory lost to the Taliban, which is considered a bigger threat than ISIL.

The Pentagon will ask the White House next week to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to break a deadlocked fight with the Taliban, a senior official said on Thursday.

According to US media, the Pentagon will ask for 3,000 to 5,000 more soldiers, mainly to advise and train Afghan military and police.US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from Nato allies, who also serve in an advisory capacity.

Those numbers are a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago, and the Afghan military has struggled to fill the void amid an unrelenting Taliban insurgency.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters