US Drone Strike Killed Afghan ISIS Leader: Report

A senior ISIS leader in Afghanistan was killed in a US drone strike Tuesday in the Nangarhar province, an Afghan news channel reports, per USA Today. "It was confirmed today that a senior leader of (ISIS) for Khorasan region, Shahidullah Shahid, has been killed in a drone strike," the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's domestic intelligence agency, said today, per Pakistan's Express Tribune, which adds that about two dozen other insurgents were also killed.

Shahid, once known as Sheikh Maqbool, had served as the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, but he was fired from that job when he decided to team up with ISIS last fall. "Shahidullah Shahid wanted to plan a major war in the region and present himself as a top leader of the terrorist group," the NDS says, per the Tribune. ISIS has not yet verified the NDS death report. (Meanwhile, our anti-ISIS training plan in Syria isn't doing terribly well.)