In the late hours of April 26, 2017, United States and Afghan special operations forces conducted an operation targeting an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP) compound in Achin District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. The operation lasted into the early morning hours of the 27th and resulted in the deaths of two US Army Rangers from C and D Companies of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and the death of Abdul Haseeb Logari, the leader of ISIL-KP, alongside several leaders, and up to 35 other militants according to The Pentagon.
Background
On January 11, 2015 Hafiz Saeed Khan a former member of Tehrik-i-Taliban and the Afghan Taliban alongside other former Taliban leaders pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, forming the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province and becoming the group's emir. Seven months later the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan pledged allegiance to ISIL and claimed membership in the Khorasan group. Immediately after its formation the United States and Afghanistan targeted the group in airstrikes and raids. The group also suffered major setbacks while fighting the Taliban.
In July 2016, Hafiz was killed in a US drone strike, around eight months later in March 2017, the Afghan and US military began an offensive dubbed Operation Hamza, targeting the militant group in Nangarhar Province and Kunar Province.
On 8 March 2017, gunmen attacked the Sardar Daud Khan Military Hospital in Kabul, killing over 100. ISIL-KP claimed responsibility for the attack, while the Afghan government suspects the Haqqani Network.
Less than two weeks before the raid on April 13, 2017, and less than a mile away from the location of the raid, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb, a GBU-43/B MOAB on an ISIL-KP tunnel network once used by the Mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War in the 80s and Osama bin Laden during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The strike killed 96 militants according to an Afghan official.
At the time of the raid, the group had been reduced to an estimated 700 fighters, down from 3,000 fighters at the group's peak, according to US officials.
Target
The target of the operation was a compound in the Mohmand Valley, located less than a mile away from where the US dropped the MOAB bomb. The compound was believed to have housed Abdul Haseeb Logari, the leader of ISIL-KP. Commanders decided to conduct a ground operation over an airstrike because women and children were believed to have been present in the compound.
Haseeb had been the leader of ISIL-KP since July 2017 and was believed to have been in his mid-thirties at the time of the raid.
Raid
At around 10:30 on the night of 26 April, 50 U.S. Army Rangers from 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, alongside 40 Afghan commandos from the Special Security Forces (Kteh Khas), were inserted near the target site by helicopter. Almost immediately after landing the force came under heavy fire from entrenched enemy positions from multiple directions, with the firefight being described as "close quarters with enemy fire coming at 360 degrees". As the joint American/Afghan force pushed through the difficult terrain under fire, they reportedly called in airstrikes from AC-130 gunships, F-16 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and drones.
Due to conditions early in the raid, the second assault force was diverted to a backup landing zone. At the landing zone, the Rangers fast-roped out of their helicopter under small arms fire, with one suffering a fall to the ground. An investigation into the raid determined that this decision to divert to a secondary landing position placed the second assault force close to ISIL-KP fighters who were already engaged in combat with “Battle Position-south”, causing them to be caught in crossfire with friendly forces while they moved North to their objective.
A team of Rangers from the primary assault force was preparing to breach the door of an enemy compound when a Ranger fell through the rooftop of the compound of which he was using to provide suppressive fire. When teammates rushed to assist, a suicide bomber detonated in a courtyard on the other side of the structure.
Following the explosion, the team of Rangers engaged in several close-quarter firefights within the compound, killing an individual referred to as “OBJ Nascent Calvia”.