US air strikes kill IS commander in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON: A US air strike has killed Qari Hikmatullah, a senior commander of the self-styled militant Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), and his bodyguard in Afghanistan, the US military announced on Monday.
“Afghan Special Security Force (ASSF) and US counter-terrorism forces killed Hikmatullah and they will kill any successors,” said Gen John Nicholson, commander, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan. “IS-K will be eliminated.”
The announcement said that both militants were killed on April 5 in the Bal Chiragh district of Afghanistan’s Faryab province. “At the time of his death, Hikmatullah was the senior IS-K commander and the main facilitator of IS-K fighters into northern Afghanistan,” the US military said.
IS-K in Jowzjan province is the main conduit for external support and foreign fighters from Central Asian states into Afghanistan. Hikmatullah was the key leader for those operations.
Hikmatullah, a native Uzbek, had a history of divided loyalties; first as an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader, followed by allegiance to the Taliban, and ultimately IS-K.
The US military said that IS-K has now named Mawlavi Habibul Rahman, another native Uzbek, as Hikmatullah’s successor.
The official US announcement said that Rahman’s succession to a leadership role raises concerns across IS-K followers in remote and isolated areas of Jowzjan. Rahman has had intermittent ties to the Taliban, highlighting the difficulty IS-K is having replacing leaders.
ASSF and US Special Operations Forces have conducted a series of counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan recently, depleting IS-K of viable leadership options in Jowzjan.
On March 16, a US airstrike killed IS-K platoon commanders, Omair and Abu Samaya, as the duo met in Sar-e Pul province. Later that evening, an ASSF night time raid on the IS-K headquarters in Jowzjan resulted in the removal of 13 more terrorists. Afghan forces captured Omair and Abu Samaya’s predecessor Khitab Aka, IS-K’s former head facilitator of foreign fighters in Jowzjan on Jan 28.
Hikmatullah’s group included hundreds of local militants, as well as several dozen foreign fighters originally from Uzbekistan.
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2018