Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security says a former spokesman for Pakistan’s Taliban who declared loyalty to the Islamist State militant group has been killed by an air strike in eastern Afghanistan.
Afghan officials say Mawlavi Shahidullah Shahid was killed on July 7 by the air strike in the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province.
Shahid was sacked as the spokesman for Pakistan’s Taliban in October 2014 after he became the first militant in the area to publicly declare allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Shahid then became an IS leader for an area that the militant group calls the Khorasan region, which comprises Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of neighboring countries.
Afghan officials say the head of IS military operations in Afghanistan, Gul Zamn Fateh, was also killed in the air strike along with his deputy, Jahadyar.