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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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07May17
US: Emir of Islamic State's Khorasan province killed in Apr. 27 raid
The emir of the Islamic State's Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province), Abdul Hasib, was killed during a raid in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Apr. 27, according to a statement released by US Forces - Afghanistan today. The operation, which was conducted in conjunction with Afghan Special Security Forces (Ktah Khas), "also resulted in the deaths of several other high ranking" Wilayah Khorasan leaders and 35 of the group's fighters.
Abdul Hasib "directed" the Mar. 8 assault on the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan Hospital in Kabul, US-Forces Afghanistan said. In order to sow confusion, the jihadists dressed as hospital employees during that attack, which resulted in more than 100 Afghans being killed or wounded. Hasib "also directed fighters to behead local elders in front of their families and ordered the kidnapping of women and girls to force them to marry" Wilayah Khorasan fighters.
"This successful joint operation is another important step in our relentless campaign to defeat ISIS-K [Islamic State - Khorasan] in 2017," General John Nicholson, the Commander US Forces - Afghanistan, said in a press release. "This is the second ISIS-K emir we have killed in nine months, along with dozens of their leaders and hundreds of their fighters. For more than two years, ISIS-K has waged a barbaric campaign of death, torture and violence against the Afghan people, especially those in southern Nangarhar."
Abdul Hasib's predecessor, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed in a US airstrike in the Achin district of Nangarhar in July 2016. Khan, a former commander in the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban, or TTP), announced his allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in late 2014. He served as Wilayah Khorasan's first emir and now his successor, Abdul Hasib, has fallen in the same area of Nangarhar.
Abdul Hasib was killed during an operation that involved approximately 50 US Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos, according to the Department of Defense. The joint American-Afghan team was "inserted by helicopter into the Mohmand Valley about 10:30 p.m. local time" on Apr. 26 and immediately engaged in an "intense, three-hour firefight." Two Americans were killed during the raid. The Pentagon is investigating the possibility that the Americans "were struck by friendly fire." The battle involved "close-quarters fighting" with "enemy fire coming at them from 360 degrees."
The battle took place near the location where the US dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB, or "Mother of All Bombs") on a Wilayah Khorasan tunnel complex earlier in April. Another American also perished in a separate battle against Wilayah Khorasan in Nangarhar in early April.
According to US Forces - Afghanistan, "hundreds" of Wilayah Khorasan fighters have been killed during a "counter" offensive that was launched against the group "in early March 2017." More than half of the districts in Nangarhar that were once under the group's control have been "liberated," allowing "local residents to return to their homes for the first time in more than two years."
[Source: By Thomas Joscelyn, FDD's Long War Journal, NJ, 07May17]
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 | This document has been published on 29May17 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |