Afghan intelligence officials said Monday they had killed a former Taliban commander who recently defected to ISIS, NBC News reported. "Today at 1:28 p.m. in a successful operation, Abdul Rauf also known as 'Khadim' was killed along with his five companions in Sadat village of Kajaki district of Helmand province," Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said in a written statement. "He was the commander of [ISIS] in southern Afghanistan." The announcement marked the first time the government has publicly acknowledged the extremist jihadi group's presence in the country.
