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US forces kill ISIS leader in Afghanistan

The head of the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan was killed in a US military raid last month.

US Special Forces who carried out a military raid last month killed the head of the Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Sunday.

The Islamic leader, Abdul Haseeb Logari, was killed during the April 27 raid on a compound in Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan.

Logari was among several high-ranking ISIS leaders in Afghanistan who died in the raid carried out by Afghan Special Security Forces in partnership with US forces, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said Logari was the second ISIS leader in Afghanistan to be killed in the last nine months. He said the terrorists had “waged a barbaric campaign of death, torture and violence against the Afghan people, especially those in southern Nangarhar.”

Logari directed the March 8 attack against Kabul National Military Hospital, in which more than 100 people were killed or wounded, the Pentagon said. That month, Afghan and US forces launched a counteroffensive in the province.

“I applaud the tremendous skill and courage shown by our Afghan partners,” Nicholson said. “This fight strengthens our resolve to rid Afghanistan of these terrorists and bring peace and stability to this great country. Any ISIS member that comes to Afghanistan will meet the same fate.”

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Two US Army Rangers died in the April 27 raid. US officials say they may have been killed as the result of friendly fire in the opening minutes of the three-hour battle.

On Monday, the Afghan government announced that the country’s air force pounded ISIS targets in the eastern province where the terror group’s top commander was killed.

The Interior Ministry stated that the airstrikes killed 34 ISIS fighters over the past 24 hours and destroyed an insurgent-controlled radio station in Nangarhar province.

The casualty toll could not be independently confirmed, as the area is off-limits to reporters.

The ministry says the strikes targeted ISIS hideouts in Nazyan and Achin districts, adding that the radio station had been illegally broadcasting ISIS messages across the eastern province and was therefore a threat to the people and the government.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff