KABUL—U.S. and Afghan forces killed the leader of Islamic State in Afghanistan on Saturday night in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, Afghan officials said Sunday, the third head of the terror group to be killed since July last year.

The Afghan intelligence agency said Abu Saad Erhabi was killed along with 10 militants in a joint ground and air operation targeting two hide-outs of Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, in the village of Jangali. The intelligence agency described him as the “emir” of the group, though that... </s> Head of Islamic State in Afghanistan killed, says government

The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, was killed in a strike on the group’s hideouts in Nangarhar province on Saturday night, authorities said on Sunday. Ten other members of the militant group were also killed in a joint ground and air operation by Afghan and foreign forces, the National Directorate of Security in Kabul said in a statement.

A large amount of heavy and light weapons and ammunition were destroyed during raids on two Islamic State hideouts. The jihadist group’s Amaq’s news agency carried no comment on the issue, and there was no immediate reaction from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission that trains and advises Afghan forces. </s> The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, was killed in a strike on the group’s hideouts in Nangarhar province on Saturday night, authorities said on Sunday. Ten other members of the militant group were also killed in a joint ground and air operation by Afghan and foreign forces, the National Directorate of Security in Kabul said in a statement.—Reuters </s> The leader of ISIL in Afghanistan was killed in air strikes in eastern Nangarhar province, the fourth head of the armed group to die since it emerged in the country in recent years.

Abu Saad Erhabi and 10 other Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members died in a joint operation with coalition forces on Saturday night, the National Directorate of Security said in a statement on Sunday.

"The emir of Daesh in Afghanistan - along with 10 others - was killed," it said, using the armed group's Arabic acronym.

The air attacks on a village in Khugyani district, near the border with Pakistan, also destroyed a large number of weapons, explosives, and ammunition, the agency said.

US forces in Afghanistan said they conducted an air raid in the location described by Afghan officials, which "targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation".

Erhabi was the fourth ISIL leader killed in Afghanistan since the group emerged there in early 2015. Erhabi succeeded Abu Sayed who was killed in a US drone attack in early July.

ISIL has a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, mainly in Nangarhar - the birthplace of the group's Afghan branch - but more recently in the northern province of Jowzjan where it is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighbouring Turkmenistan.

Hours before Saturday's air raids, the group claimed a deadly suicide attack that appeared to target a sit-in protest outside an election commission office in the city of Jalalabad. Two people were killed.

The bombings followed a number of attacks claimed by ISIL in recent weeks, including assaults on several government installations in Kabul and a bombing at a school in a Shia area of the capital that killed at least 37 people.

The group, however, has suffered repeated setbacks amid a bloody turf war with the much larger Taliban. Estimates of ISIL's numbers in the country run as high as 2,000.

More than 150 ISIL fighters surrendered to Afghan forces in Jowzjan on August 1, a move troops and the Taliban hailed as the end of the group's foothold in the north of the country.

ISIL in Afghanistan is also known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan. </s> As families and friends mourn the loss of those killed in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul, Afghan officials launched an investigation on those responsible for the assault.

Gunmen dressed in white lab coats stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital in the centre of the capital on Wednesday, firing shots, detonating explosives and then battling security forces for hours. The assault resulted in the death of more than 40 people.

The Afghan interior ministry and the defence ministry on Thursday announced a probe into a claim by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that it was behind the attack.

“We are assessing Daesh claims to yesterday’s attack, but at this stage we can’t make a prejudgment prior to conclusion of investigation,” Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesperson of the Afghan ministry of interior said in a tweet, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL, also known as ISIS.

“Brutal terrorist groups like ISIS (ISIL), Taliban, Haqqani and many other regional terrorist networks with safe havens in Pakistan have been behind many horrific attacks in the past,” he added.

The Afghan Taliban, which attacked the Sardar Daud Khan hospital in 2013 killing six people, denied responsibility for Wednesday’s assault.

According to US military officials, ISIL has about 700 fighters in Afghanistan. The group has previously claimed responsibility for a number of attacks that resulted in a large number of casualties, including a twin suicide bombing at a protest march in Kabul last year that left at least 80 people dead.

As reports emerged of ISIL’s claim of responsibility, some analysts said the group does not have the capacity to conduct an attack of this magnitude.

“[ISIL] is still trying to gain a foothold in the east of the country,” Inayatullah Kakar, an Afghan security and political analyst, told a foreign news publication.

“ISIL does exist in Afghanistan, but for them to conduct an attack like this in an area that is heavily guarded and with this calibre that killed so many people, it doesn’t seem possible, as they are still trying to gain territories in eastern Afghanistan, while fighting the Taliban.”

The UN Security Council also denounced the attack in a statement released on Thursday and urged the international community to cooperate with the Afghan government to bring those responsible to justice and to suppress the financing of “terrorism”.

The death toll has risen to 49 with dozens wounded, a senior health official said on Thursday.

Salim Rassouli, director of Kabul hospitals, said 49 people had been killed in the attack on the Sardar Mohammad Khan military hospital on Wednesday, with at least 63 wounded.

Some uncertainty remained over the exact figure and one security official said more than 90 people had been wounded. Earlier estimates had put the number of dead at more than 30 with 50 wounded.

Gunmen went through the 400-bed hospital, shooting doctors, patients and visitors and battling security forces for several hours in a sophisticated operation claimed by Islamic State. </s> Two US service members were killed Thursday while conducting a joint US-Afghan operation in the Achin District of Nangarhar Province, Pentagon Spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told CNN.

The operation was targeting ISIS-K, the terror group’s Afghanistan affiliate. A US official told CNN the service members were Special Operations Forces soldiers.

The US official also told CNN that an additional soldier was wounded during the firefight. That service member’s wounds are not considered life-threatening.

Achin District is the primary base of operations for ISIS in Afghanistan and has been the site of multiple joint US-Afghan counterterrorism missions. It is also where the US dropped one of its most powerful bombs earlier this month, killing close to 100 ISIS fighters, according to Afghan officials.

Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, has pledged to eliminate ISIS-K from Afghanistan this year.

US and coalition casualties in Afghanistan have fallen dramatically since the Afghan government assumed responsibility for combat operations in 2014. </s> A top Afghan government official said on Sunday it was likely that Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. air strike.

"Last night, American officials informed the Afghan government and it is very likely that he is killed. As soon as we get more information we will inform our people," said Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

U.S. officials in Washington said on Saturday U.S. missile-firing drones had attacked Mansour and probably killed him in a strike in southwest Pakistan, near the Afghan border, authorized by U.S. President Barack Obama. </s> Earlier this month ISIL was blamed for killing six Afghan Red Cross employees in Jowzjan province [File: AFP/Getty Images] Ten police officers and the wife of a commander have been killed in an ambush outside a mosque by Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan. Mohammad Reza Ghafori, spokesman for the Jowzjan provincial governor, said on Saturday the police officers were attacked on Friday as they were coming out of the mosque.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Al Jazeera. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Saad Erhabi, was killed in a strike on the group’s hideouts in Nangarhar province on Saturday night, authorities said on Sunday.

Ten other members of the militant group were also killed in a joint ground and air operation by Afghan and foreign forces, the National Directorate of Security in Kabul said in a statement.

A large amount of heavy and light weapons and ammunition were destroyed during raids on two Islamic State hideouts.

The jihadist group’s Amaq’s news agency carried no comment on the issue.

Lieutenant-Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the United States carried out a strike in Afghanistan on Saturday against a “senior leader of a designated terrorist organization.”

The provincial governor of Nangarhar said Erhabi was the fourth Islamic State leader in Afghanistan to be killed since July 2017.

The group has developed a stronghold in Nangarhar, on Afghanistan’s porous eastern border with Pakistan, and become one of the country’s most dangerous militant groups.

The local affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces.

Former ISIS-K leader Abu Sayed was killed in a strike in the eastern province of Nangarhar and Sayed’s predecessors were killed in joint U.S. and Afghan operations.

The exact number of Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan is difficult to calculate because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000.

More than 150 Islamic State fighters surrendered to Afghan security forces this month in the northwestern province of Jawzjan, where the group is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighboring Turkmenistan.
Afghan authorities say that, in a joint ground and air operation on Saturday night, Afghan and foreign forces killed the head of ISIL/K, along with ten other members of the militant group.