A U.S. strike on an Islamic State compound killed the group’s emir in Afghanistan on Tuesday in another blow to its leadership, according to the Defense Department.
Abu Sayed was the third leader of the group’s Afghanistan franchise, ISIS-Khorasan, killed by U.S. forces over the past year. Sayed took over after the last emir, Abdul Hasib, was killed in April during an intense firefight that left two Army Rangers dead. The previous emir was killed in July 2016.
The Defense Department stepped up operations in Afghanistan earlier this year in an attempt to drive out the Islamic State, which has claimed a foothold in the eastern part of the country. The strike that killed Sayed was in Kunar province along the Pakistan border.
“The significance is you kill the leader of one of these groups and it sets them back for a day, a week, a month,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said. “It’s obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them back. It’s the right direction.”
Mattis declined to provide additional details of the operation that killed Sayed, and he wanted to know more himself before speaking publicly.
