Afghan Special Security Forces, accompanied by U.S. special operations troops, killed 22 Islamic State-Khorasan fighters in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 11, according to the headquarters for U.S.-Afghanistan forces.
“The recent Afghan and U.S. special operations raid will lead to the tactical defeat of IS-K in northern Afghanistan,” said Gen. John Nicholson, U.S. forces commander in Afghanistan. “Pockets of former Taliban fighters may claim allegiance to IS-K, but they are isolated and losing. We have them on the defensive. They will not win.”
The operation occurred six days after a U.S. airstrike killed the IS-K emir for northern Afghanistan, Qari Hekmatullah, and his bodyguard.
IS-K’s new leader in northern Afghanistan is Mawlavi Habibul Rahman, a native Uzbek, has had intermittent ties to both the Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, just like Hekmatullah.
