ISIS chief reported dead in strike
9 other militants killed, Afghans say; Russian talks canceled
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials said Monday that a U.S. strike over the weekend killed a senior Islamic State commander, and that Russia has indefinitely postponed a meeting on the country’s peace process.
The strike in Nangarhar province killed Abu Sayeed Orakzai, a senior leader in the extremist group, according to Shah Hussain Martazawi, deputy spokesman for the Afghan presidency. He said the operation showed the government’s “determination to fight terrorism.”
Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said American forces launched a counterterrorism strike in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday that targeted a “senior leader of a designated terrorist organization.” He did not provide further details.
“These efforts target the real enemies of Afghanistan, the same enemies who threaten America,” he said.
Orakzai, who was also known as Abu Saad Erhabi, was the head of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan, according to a government
official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. Erhabi was killed alongside nine other members of the militant group in the attack, the official said.
Separately in northern Faryab province, three Afghan army soldiers were killed and five others wounded after their convoy was ambushed by Taliban insurgents, said Hanif Rezaie, an army spokesman for the country’s north.
Several army vehicles were damaged in the attack, and dozens of insurgents were killed during airstrikes conducted by the army, Rezaie said. He added that an army unit has been deployed to Qaisar district to prevent further Taliban attacks on Faryab province.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. He said that in addition to “killing and wounding tens of troops” and setting several military vehicles on fire, their fighters also seized munitions from the army convoy.
Afghanistan also announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have decided to postpone their meeting on the peace process. The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced the delay on its website, saying the Sept. 4 meeting would be moved to an unknown future date.
“[Ghani] supported the idea of a Moscow meeting in principle and suggested postponing it in order to come up with a consolidated position,” the ministry’s statement said.
Afghanistan said last week it would not attend the meeting because it would not provide the opportunity for direct negotiations between the government and the Taliban. The U.S. also declined to take part in the Russian-led discussions, to which Moscow invited a number of key powers.
“The main and essential principle is to hold peace talks under the ownership of Afghans,” Ghani told Lavrov.
In response, Lavrov said Russia wants “Afghan-owned peace talks and is ready for any effective cooperation in that regard with the government of Afghanistan,” according to the statement from Kabul.
Mujahid has said the Taliban would attend the meeting but would not hold face-toface talks with Afghan government officials if they attended. The Taliban had said they were ready to talk to the U.S. to end the war, but not with the Afghan government as they deem it illegitimate.
The U.S. delegation, led by the country’s top South Asia diplomat, Alice Wells, secretly met with Taliban leaders in Doha in July to talk about Afghan peace and trust-building measures.
Elsewhere on Monday, two military pilots were shot and killed by unknown gunmen in the capital Kabul, according Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the Defense Ministry.
The attackers were able to flee and an investigation is underway, added Radmanish. Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez and staff members of The Associated Press; and by Eltaf Najafizada and Henry Meyer of Bloomberg News.