Top al-Qaeda commander ‘killed’ in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghanistan's top spy agency on Tuesday claimed the head of the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was killed along with six other terrorists in the country’s southern Helmand province.

The National Directorate of Security issued an unclassified statement with the picture of the slain AQIS chief Asim Omar, reportedly killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan raid on a Taliban compound in Musa Qala district of Helmand province on Sep. 23.

“Omar, a #Pakistani citizen, was #killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Pakistani. Among them was Raihan, Omar’s courier to Ayman #Al_Zawahiri. They had been embedded inside the Taliban compound in the #Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala,” the NDS said in a Twitter post.

There has been no immediate reaction from the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The Afghan Taliban vowed to shun ties with al-Qaeda during their failed peace parley with the Americans.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times has described Omar as an India-born terrorist who led al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) since its creation in 2014.

The Indian daily said Omar was born in Sambhal city of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh province, and went to Pakistan in 1995 and joined the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) group before joining AQIS.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghanistan's top spy agency on Tuesday claimed the head of the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) was killed along with six other terrorists in the country’s southern Helmand province.

There has been no immediate reaction from the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The Afghan Taliban vowed to shun ties with al-Qaeda during their failed peace parley with the Americans.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Times has described Omar as an India-born terrorist who led al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) since its creation in 2014.

The Indian daily said Omar was born in Sambhal city of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh province, and went to Pakistan in 1995 and joined the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) group before joining AQIS.