South Asia region Al Qaeda chief Asim Umar killed in Afghanistan

The leader of Al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a US -Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan in September. Asim Umar, who led al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) since its inception in 2014, was killed during a raid on September 23 on a Taliban compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand Province.

Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS)



said Umar was a Pakistani citizen, though some reports claim he was born in India. He was killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Pakistani, the NDS tweeted, adding that Umar had been embedded with the Taliban. The raid was part of a lengthy overnight operation between September 22 and 23 for which the US provided air support.