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By Polly Mosendz
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Shahidullah Shahid, the leader of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, was killed in an airstrike on Tuesday in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, the National Directorate of Security told TOLO News, an Afghan television network, on Thursday morning.
Prior to joining ISIS, Shahid was the spokesman of the Taliban's division in Pakistan. He joined ISIS in October of 2014. His real name is believed to be Sheikh Maqbool, though he used Shahid as an alias while working for both terrorist groups.
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"Shahidullah Shahid wanted to plan a major war in the region and present himself as a top leader of the terrorist group," the National Directorate of Security told The Express Tribune of Pakistan.
The airstrike which killed Shahid also killed 24 other terrorists. Others killed include deputy commander Gul Zaman, a deputy identified only by the name of Jahanyar, and a number of unidentified members of the group.
Several high ranking ISIS members have been killed and injured this year. In May, deputy leader Abu Alaa Afri was killed in an airstrike in Tal Afar, Iraq. He was the second in command to official leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Baghdadi was reportedly injured in late April and relied on Alaa Afri to conduct day-to-day operations for the group. In May, the ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf was killed in a raid in al-Amr. His wife, Umm Sayyaf, was taken alive and remains in U.S. custody.
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