A military raid last month killed the head of the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Sunday night.
The death of Abdul Haseeb Logari had been suspected after the April 27 raid on a compound in Nangarhar, a province in eastern Afghanistan, but officials said then that they were not certain.
Logari was among several high-ranking leaders of Islamic State 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, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said Logari was the second leader of IS in Afghanistan to be killed in the last nine months. He said the militants 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, which killed or wounded more than 100 people, 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.”
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.
