US: Top Daesh leader in Afghanistan likely dead

The leader of Daesh terror group in Afghanistan is likely dead, targeted in a US-Afghan raid on a cave-and-tunnel complex that left two US special operations forces soldiers dead, Voice of America reported.

Pentagon officials said on Friday that they suspected Daesh Khorasan province leader Abdul Hasib was killed in a brutal, three-hour firefight in the Mohmand Valley, in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

Officials said another 35 Daesh fighters also had been killed, and that they were investigating the possibility the dead US soldiers were victims of friendly fire.

"This was a dangerous mission and we knew this going in," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters. "We knew he [Hasib] was going to be well-protected and that they were going to fight very hard to prevent from being captured or killed. And that is indeed what happened."

The operation to kill or capture Hasib began about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday local time, when 50 US Army Rangers and 40 Afghan commandos arrived by helicopter at the heavily fortified Daesh complex.

"Within minutes of the insertion, the combined force came under intense fire from multiple directions," Davis said. "It was during these initial moments of the raid that the two Rangers were mortally wounded."

Source: MENA