AKIPRESS.COM - The head of Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abdul Hasib, has been killed by Afghan and US special forces in the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to officials, The Guardian reported.

Hasib, appointed last year after his predecessor Hafiz Saeed Khan died in a US drone strike, is believed to have ordered a series of high profile attacks including one on 8 March on the main military hospital in Kabul, a statement said.

Last month, a Pentagon spokesman said Hasib had probably been killed during the raid on 27 April by US and Afghan special forces in Nangarhar during which two US army Rangers were killed. But prior to Sunday’s announcement there had been no confirmation.

“This successful joint operation is another important step in our relentless campaign to defeat [Isis],” the top US commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson said in a statement.

The statement, following an earlier announcement by Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, said Hasib directed the 8 March attack on the main Kabul military hospital by a group of militants disguised as doctors. Dozens of medical staff and patients were killed in the attack.

It said he also ordered fighters to behead local elders in front of their families and kidnap women and girls to force them to marry Isis fighters.

The local affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K), after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active since 2015, fighting both the Taliban as well as Afghan and US forces.