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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during his meeting with Italy's Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti on July 11, 2017, at the Pentagon. Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

The past two ISIS-K emirs were killed in July 2016 and

Nicholson helped launch an Afghan and U.S. counteroffensive aimed at driving ISIS-K out of the country by the end of the year. Nicholson said in a video statement that operations over the last year have killed dozens of the groups senior leaders.

Mattis is currently conducting a review of Afghanistan strategy and troop levels and is expected to release those plans soon, though he said he did not want to put a timetable on it.

Mattis and Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford previously said that the Pentagons review includes the broader South Asia region and that it would be delivered in mid-July.

Senate Armed Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Arizona, last month said the United States has no strategy to end what he called a stalemate in Afghanistan after 16 years of war.

"Six months into the new administration, it still has not delivered a strategy," McCain said in a June 19 statement. We cannot keep going like this. If the administration fails to develop a strategy for success, Congress will need to play a greater role."

McCain said Congress could put a committee-created Afghanistan strategy into the National Defense Authorization Act. The House passed its version of that act, which raises defense spending to $696 billion in fiscal year 2018, 344-81.

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ISIS Leader in Afghanistan Killed in Airstrike, Pentagon Says - NBCNews.com