The chief of Al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a US-Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan last month, National Directorate of Security (NDS) confirmed.
Asim Umer, 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.
He “was killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Pakistani”, the NDS said on Twitter on Tuesday, adding that Umar had been “embedded” inside the Taliban compound in the Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala.
The NDS said that the courier for core al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was among killed in the operation.
Zawahiri has led al-Qaida since Osama Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. special operations raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011.
The United States invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over Al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001 attacks against the US.
The middle-aged Umar was relatively unknown when he was picked to lead the newly created AQIS in 2014.
The terrorist branch was established to try to rouse fighters in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
But the Taliban group has denied the death of Asim Umer, calling the report “enemy fabricated propaganda.
