ISIS Recruiter Reported Killed in US Drone Strike in Afghanistan

Four Pakistanis Also Among the Slain

A US drone strike along the Afghan-Pakistan border killed five people today, including four Pakistanis who are thus-far unidentified, and according to reports Mullah Abdul Rauf, a former Taliban turned ISIS recruiter.

Abdul Rauf was captured at age 20 during the US invasion of Afghanistan, and spent the next six years at Guantanamo Bay. He was transferred to Pul-e Charkhi prison in Afghanistan and eventually turned over to the Afghan government.

By 2010 he was back on the ground and had become a key Taliban figure, though in recent months he is said to have become disillusioned and shifted allegiance to ISIS.

He was central in recent reports of a schism in the Taliban, with many looking to join ISIS as a more successful group with a more global-thinking leadership than the Taliban itself.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.