US-AFGHAN JOINT RAID IN AFGHANISTAN

Afp, Kabul
The leader of al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a US-Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan last month, Afghan officials confirmed yesterday.

Asim Umar, who led al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) from its inception in 2014, was killed during a raid September 23 on a Taliban compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said Umar was a Pakistani citizen, though some reports claim he was born in India.

He “was #killed along with six other AQIS members,”, the NDS said on Twitter,

The middle-aged Umar was relatively unknown when he was picked to lead the newly created AQIS in 2014. The jihadist branch was established to try to rouse fighters in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Authorities said they would investigate reports that 40 civilians, including children, were killed in an airstrike during the operation.

Under a stalled withdrawal plan negotiated between the US and the Taliban, Washington agreed to pull troops from Afghanistan if the insurgents abide by security guarantees and cut all ties with al-Qaeda.

The US invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001 attacks against America.