US airstrike kills senior Afghan IS commanders

A US airstrike has killed several senior members of the Islamic State group's affilate in Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.

According to a statement from US military command in Kabul, the strike had killed Abdul Rahman - a man identified as the Kunar provincial emir for the Islamic State group in Syria-Khorasan.

"The death of Abdul Rahman deals yet another blow to the senior leadership of ISIS-K," said General John Nicholson, the senior US commander in Afghanistan.

The strike in eastern Kunar province also claimed the lives of three others members of the group.

Earlier this year, Nicholson vowed to defeat the IS group in Afghanistan.

This mission has included the killing of the group's emir Abu Sayed in July, as well as the controversial use of a 21,600-pound bomb, dubbed the 'Mother of All Bombs' in Nangrahar province in April.

The bomb was one of the largest ever used by the US army in combat.

On the same day as the strike on the IS leaders, Afghan officials reported that as many as 16 civilians, including women and children, were killed by a US air strike in Nangrahar.

Despite the US stepping up military activity in Afghanistan, the IS group has continued its operations around the country. This has fuelled fears that the militant group, which has suffered crushing defeats in the Middle East, will attempt to link up on the ground with its fledgling Central Asian affiliate.