Hafiz Saeed Khan, leader of so-called Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and Pakistan, died in a U.S. drone strike last month, the U.S. believes, according to BBC News.

Last year, the Afghan intelligence agency said it believed Saeed Khan had died in a drone attack in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.

However, IS insisted its leader had survived that attack.

On Friday, August 12 the U.S. said he had been killed in a new drone attack in Nangarhar's Achin district on 26 July.

The drone strike was carried out three days after IS carried out its most devastating attack in Afghanistan, killing 80 people and wounding 230 at a rally of Shia Muslims from the Hazara minority in the capital Kabul.

IS, a Sunni Muslim group, regards Shia as heretics.