Updated: 20.30

The leader of Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been killed by a US drone strike, a top Afghan diplomat has said.

The hit on Hafiz Saeed Khan in eastern Afghanistan was revealed by the country's ambassador to Pakistan.

A spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan said they are investigating a report a local IS leader is dead but they cannot yet confirm if it is true.

But an unnamed US defence official told Reuters the IS leader had indeed been killed.

Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal told Reuters: "I can confirm that ISIS Khurasan leader Hafiz Saeed Khan along with his senior commanders and fighters died in a US drone strike on July 26 in Kot district of Afghanistan's Nangharhar province."

Khan, a former member of the Pakistani branch of the Taliban, had sworn allegiance to Middle East-based Islamic State.
He was earlier reported killed last year but the death was never confirmed.

In confirmed, Hafiz Saeed Khan's death would strike a blow to efforts by Middle East-based Islamic State to expand its territory and its jihadist push into Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It would be the second death of a prominent jihadist in the region in months.

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed by a US airstrike strike in Pakistan in May.