Shahidullah Shahid: Former Taliban spokesman who defected to Isis killed by drone strike in Afghanistan

A former Pakistani Taliban (TTP) spokesman who was sacked for pledging allegiance to Islamic State (Isis) and subsequently became the leader of IS in Afghanistan, has been killed in a drone strike, according to local reports.

Sheikh Maqbool, whose nom de guerre was Shahidullah Shahid, was targeted along with 24 other jihadists in aerial bombing in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan.

In October 2014, the influential spokesman was sacked by the TTP after the release of an audio message in which he and other five commanders pledged their allegiance to IS.

The Taliban said Shahid no longer worked for the group and confirmed their support for Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The defectors included local TTP leaders in the Orakzai, Kurram, and Khyber tribal regions, and Peshawar and Hangu districts.

Orakzai commander Saeed Khan is seen as the biggest loss to the Taliban group.

A Taliban commander told Reuters that Shahid's decision to align himself with the Islamic State was a move to grab attention in the media.

"He used our name and tried to make it big news in the media," the commander said.