Head of the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group in Afghanistan has been killed in a US airstrike in Kunar province, the Pentagon confirmed. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Abu Sayed's death is a significant blow to IS.
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The Pentagon said in a statement on Friday that Abu Sayed was killed in a July 11 airstrike in Afghanistan's northern Kunar province. The raid killed other so-called "Islamic State" (IS) jihadis too.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis termed Sayed's killing a significant achievement.
"You kill a leader of one of these groups and it sets them back," Mattis told reporters. "It is obviously a victory on our side in terms of setting them [IS] back. It's the right direction," he added.
Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.
US and Afghan forces had also killed Sayed's two predecessors – Hafiz Saeed in July 2016, and Abdul Hasib in April this year.
At the time, the US military had said Hasib's death would "help reach our goal of destroying them in 2017."
"We will continue until they are annihilated. There is no safe haven for ISIS-K in Afghanistan," said US General John Nicholson, who leads US forces in Afghanistan, referring to the jihadi group's operations in its so-called "Khorasan province" that encompasses a historic region covering Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Iran.
Last month, the Pentagon announced it would send some 4,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan. The latest wave of troops will mainly be deployed to train and advise Afghan forces, following warnings by top US commanders in the region that the local military was facing a resurgent Taliban and a rising threat posed by IS.
Reports of IS presence in Afghanistan emerged in early 2015. In 2014, the Afghan government and US military officials acknowledged that the terror group was recruiting fighters in eastern Afghanistan, using the power vacuum in the Taliban leadership. But in the past few months, the Taliban, which as a group is at odds with IS, has made significant gains in Afghanistan. Security experts consider Taliban to be a much bigger threat to the stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan than IS.
Despite the fact that IS presence in Afghanistan seems quite limited, there is a possibility that the militant group is getting assistance, and possibly fighters, from neighboring Pakistan. The Islamic country is considered a breeding ground for Sunni militant groups. Afghan authorities have repeatedly accused Islamabad of supporting the Taliban and other militant groups and sending them into Afghanistan to destabilize the government.
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the war-torn country remains in the grip of Islamist violence. A string of deadly attacks in the last year suggests militants are stronger than ever.
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Fragile security
Repeated attacks in Afghanistan in 2018 and 2019 have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent Afghans, and shown the world the fragile and worsening state of security in the conflict-stricken country. The incidents have plunged war-weary Afghan citizens into a state of despair and highlighted the limitations faced by the government in Kabul in ensuring public security.
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A long series of attacks
The violent incidents have made Afghanistan once again a staple of international headlines. Outfits like the Taliban and the "Islamic State" (IS) have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Afghan government is under heavy pressure to restore security and take back territory controlled by a number of insurgent groups, including the Taliban and IS.
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Spring offensive
In 2018, the Taliban announced the start of their annual spring offensive, dismissing an offer of peace talks by President Ashraf Ghani. The militants, fighting to restore their version of strict Islamic law to Afghanistan, said their campaign was a response to a more aggressive US military strategy adopted in 2017, which aims to force the militants into peace talks.
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Trump's Afghanistan policy
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan in 2017, vowing to deploy more troops to train and advise Afghan security forces. Trump also pledged to support Afghan troops in their war against the Taliban and maintain US presence in the country for as long as there was a need for it. In 2019, he reversed course and promised a troop pullout.
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Afghan peace process
Despite President Ghani's offer in February 2018 for peace talks "without preconditions," the Taliban had until 2019 shown no interest, dismissing the peace overtures as a "conspiracy."
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Pakistani support
Pakistan has been under pressure from Kabul and Washington to stop offering safe havens to militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies and insists that its influence over the insurgents has been exaggerated. Kabul and Islamabad regularly trade accusations of harboring the other country's militants and the harsh language has underscored the strains between them.
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Role of the warlords
Apart from the Taliban, Afghan warlords exercise massive influence in the country. Last year, Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul after a 20-year exile to play an active role in Afghan politics. In September 2016, the Afghan government signed a deal with Hekmatyar in the hope that other warlords and militant groups would seek better ties with Kabul.
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An inefficient government
In the midst of an endless battle for power, President Ghani's approval ratings continue to plummet. Rampant corruption in the Afghan government and a long tug-of-war within the US-brokered national unity government has had a negative impact on the government's efforts to eradicate terrorism.
