Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 1, 2018
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban insurgency announced Wednesday it has cleared Afghanistan’s northern Jowzjan province of Islamic State, claiming residual IS fighters have fled and surrendered to government forces in the area.
Provincial authorities in Jowzjan, which borders neighboring Turkmenistan, have also confirmed about 150 IS fighters, including foreigners, surrendered to the security forces Wednesday in the face of the Taliban onslaught in the Darzab district.
Provincial police officer for security Abdul Hafez Khashi told VOA regional IS commander Habibur Rehman was among the militants who arrived at the district police headquarters in the morning and turned themselves in.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, while giving details of its counter-IS operation in Darzab, said the Taliban went into action three weeks ago and overran the last IS stronghold early Wednesday.
Mujahid said the Taliban offensive killed nearly 100 fighters of Islamic State’s Afghan franchise, known as ISK-P, and captured around 130 others. He said 17 Taliban fighters were also killed in the fighting while another 13 were wounded.
The Islamic State terrorist group launched its Afghan operations in early 2015 from bases in Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan, and has since expanded its activities to the nearby eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan and to Jowzjan in the north.
The emergence of IS in Jowzjan has been a particular concern for Russia. It is widely perceived that Moscow’s closeness with the Taliban in recent years stemmed from fears that ungoverned spaces in northern Afghanistan, near the border with Central Asian states, could undermine Russian regional security and territorial interests.
IS, locally known as Daesh, has claimed almost all recent terrorist attacks in Nangarhar that killed scores of Afghan security forces and civilians, including members of the country’s tiny Sikh minority.
The latest suspected IS attack took place Tuesday in Nangarhar’s capital, Jalalabad.
The coordinated suicide attack killed 15 people and wounded 15 others. The assailants targeted the office of refugee and repatriation in the city when a big meeting of relevant aid agencies was under way.
The United Nations confirmed Wednesday a female employee of the International Organization for Migration was among those killed and another was wounded.
The Taliban denied its involvement in the Jalalabad incident, strengthening suspicions it could be the work of IS, although IS has not officially taken responsibility.
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These crimes of Daesh in Skikda in Algeria in Iraq and in the world and these wars in Iraq in Syria in Yemen to satisfy satan if the terrorists Daesh and Boko Haram in Algeria in Iraq in Syria in Afghanistan in Nigeria and in the world do not pose their weapons and the UN does not end these wars on August 2, 2018 ALLAH puts an end to satan by a cataclysm if the end of the world August 2018 to non-Muslims to convert to Islam to avoid hell.
Ces crimes de Daech a Skikda en Algérie en Irak et dans le monde et ces guerres en Irak en Syrie en Yémen pour satisfaire satan si les terroristes Daech et Boko Haram en Algérie en Irak en Syrie en Afghanistan en Nigeria et dans le monde ne posent par leurs armes et l’Onu ne met pas fin a ces guerres le 2 Août 2018 ALLAH met fin a satan par un cataclysme si la fin du monde Août 2018 aux non musulmans de se convertir a l’islam pour éviter l’enfer.