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AFP/Kabul
The head of the Islamic State group in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region has been killed in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan, intelligence officials and militant commanders said Saturday.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan spy agency, said Hafiz Saeed Khan was among 30 IS-linked cadres killed in the strike in restive Nangarhar province, close to the Pakistani border, on Friday.
Two IS-affiliated commanders in Afghanistan who said they were present when the strike happened confirmed Saeed's death to AFP.
The IS presence in Afghanistan is still thought to be at an embryonic stage and the killing of Saeed will come as a blow to the group's efforts to establish itself as a serious force.
"Hafiz Saeed, ISIS leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan was killed in a drone strike last night," the NDS said in a statement on Saturday.
"As a result of drone strike in Achin district on gathering place of Daesh, 30 people associated with Daesh including their leader Hafiz Seed were killed."
Daesh is another name for IS.
The two militant commanders, who used to be with the Taliban, speaking to AFP by phone from an undisclosed location, said they were present when the drone strike happened.
The strike took place while a meeting of the commanders was going on, they said, adding that Saeed's badly mutilated body was buried soon afterwards.
Saeed was named head of IS's "Khorasan province", which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of neighbouring countries, in January when a group of Pakistani Taliban switched allegiance to the group.
Since then there have been defections from the Afghan Taliban, with some insurgents apparently adopting the IS flag to rebrand themselves as a more lethal force as NATO troops depart.
US General John F Campbell, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said he believes IS are recruiting but not operational in the country.
But their presence has clearly rattled the Taliban, who last month wrote to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warning against waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan.
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