KABUL: A senior commander of the self-styled Islamic State has been killed in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan intelligence officials said on Saturday, the fourth high-ranking member of the militant group to be killed in the area in the past week.

Hafez Saeed was the leader of IS in the “so-called Khorasan state”, according to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), referring to an old term to describe Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was killed along with 30 other militants as they gathered in Achin district of Nangarhar province late on Friday, the intelligence agency said. It did not give any further details about the air strike.

Read: Ex-TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid killed in US drone strike: report

Saeed, a Pakistani, was among a small but increasing number of senior Taliban militants who have switched allegiance to IS in Afghanistan.

Such figures have been targets for US drone strikes, which have killed three other IS commanders in the same area in the past week, including Shahidullah Shahid and Gul Zaman.

After pushing out the Taliban insurgents, Islamic State fighters have in the past two months gained ground in several districts of Nangarhar province, which shares a long and porous border with lawless areas inside Pakistan.

Achin fell to the IS militants last month after heavy clashes with the Taliban.

Currently, IS poses serious threats to the Afghan Taliban, who are now engaged in talks with Afghan administration for durable peace in the region.

A few months earlier, the Afghan Taliban had issued a letter to the IS chief warning them to keep away from Afghanistan.

The recent development of Saeed's death could be a serious setback for newly recruited IS militants in Afghanistan.