KABUL – The Islamic State group’s Afghan branch has been “defeated” in oneof the key eastern provinces where it first sought to establish astronghold, a top Afghan security official said Sunday.
The claim comes after the jihadists first burst into Afghanistan’s conflictin 2015, when they overran large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces,near the Pakistan border.
In the years since, they have claimed responsibility for a string ofhorrific bombings across Afghanistan, including at a wedding hall in Kabul,and have been continually attacked by US, Afghan and even Taliban forces.
IS “were defeated in Nangarhar, their centres were destroyed”, actinginterior minister Massoud Andarabi told reporters in Jalalabad, theNangarhar provincial capital, amid ongoing operations against the jihadists.
“We will soon destroy their last centres. With the people’s help, we willcompletely eliminate them. Some of their smaller groups are surrendering,other small groups will be eliminated in other provinces.”
He went on to say that IS were being “completely defeated” in Afghanistan.
US Forces-Afghanistan, which closely monitors the IS footprint inAfghanistan, declined to comment, referring a query back to the InteriorMinistry.
Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for Nangarhar’s governor, said 32 ISfighters surrendered to government forces on Saturday.
Read Top Stories
“They are coming in big numbers,” he told AFP.
IS have suffered a string of major defeats in recent months, including thecollapse of their self-proclaimed “caliphate” in Syria and the death of thegroup’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syrialast month.
Connections between Baghdadi and the IS affiliate in Afghanistan, betterknown as IS in the Khorasan, or IS-K, have always been murky.
But Khogyani said Baghdadi’s death had disrupted IS-K’s command and controlstructure.
“It has affected the fighters on the ground here, they are eithersurrendering to the government or going back to their ordinary lives,” hesaid. – APP/AFP
