US and Afghan troops likely killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate in a raid this week, the Pentagon said Friday. US officials also said they have opened a probe into whether two US Army Rangers killed in the assault had been struck by friendly fire. The raid, which occurred overnight Wednesday-Thursday in Nangarhar province, targeted Abdul Hasib, whom the Pentagon called the IS leader in Afghanistan.

"The thought is we got him, but we are not certain," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. Davis said about 50 US special forces and 40 Afghan commandos had been choppered in to the Mohmand Valley late Wednesday near the compound used by Hasib. His group is affiliated with IS in Iraq and Syria, and the US military calls it Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. The troops' arrival was met with immediate and ferocious opposition, and early on the two Rangers, sergeants Joshua Rodgers and Cameron Thomas, were shot and killed.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017