Twenty-five Daesh — or so-called Islamic State (IS) — fighters have been killed in a drone strike in the Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said according  to pajhwok.com.

Police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashraqiwal told Pajhwok Afghan News the drone strike targeted a Daesh ’ hideout in the Momand Dara area of the district on Tuesday.

He said at least 25 IS fighters including key members of the insurgent group were killed in the raid. He did not provide details about the the key members of the rebel group killed.

According to Mashriqiwal, several weapons, ammunition and explosives were also destroyed in the attack. Security forces and civilians suffered no casualties.

There has been no word yet from the insurgent outfit in this regard.

A senior Al-Qaeda leader has been killed along with 80 members of the group during joint operations in Afghanistan, the spy service claimed like reported by pajhwok.com.

National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement Omar Khetab, also known as Omar Mansour, was killed along with 80 associates during the offensives.

Special Forces, Army, National Police and NATO’s Resolute Support Mission troops conducted the joint operation in Ghazni, Zabul and Paktia provinces, a statement from NDS said.

Omar Khetab took over after Asem Omar was a senior leader of the Al-Qaeda branch. At least 27 members of the group were arrested and five hideouts destroyed during the offensives.

Qasem, known as Khuram Kayani, Hussan Hamza, a key member of the outfit for Afghanistan, Mustafa, a military commander, three Pakistani militants and two local Taliban were among the dead.

Al-Qaeda network’s members have been fighting directly against the government and international forces since 2015.

The Al-Qaeda insurgents have also providing communication support and training for Taliban on night operations, the intelligence agency alleged.

When a Taliban commander defected to Islamic State in northern Afghanistan a few months ago, his men and the foreign fighters he invited in started to enslave local women and set up a bomb-making school for 300 children, officials and residents said, according to reuters.com.

The mini-caliphate established six months ago in two districts of Jawzjan province marks a new inroad in Afghanistan by Islamic State (IS), which is claiming more attacks even as its fighters suffer heavy losses in Iraq and Syria.

Qari Hekmat, a prominent Taliban leader in Jawzjan, switched allegiance around six months ago, according to local people who have since fled, raising the movement’s black flag over the local mosque and forcing residents to swear fealty to IS’s leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

“They started killing a lot of people and warned others to cooperate,” said Baz Mohammad, who fled Darz Aab district after his 19-year-old son was recruited into IS at the local mosque.

IS in Jawzjan has now attracted the attention of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which will launch an offensive in the north in the next few days, U.S. Army General John Nicholson said on Tuesday.

U.S. air strikes and special forces have been pounding the main Afghan foothold of IS fighters in the eastern province of Nangarhar, but that has not prevented the movement from stepping up attacks.

IS has claimed at least 15 bombings and other attacks in Afghanistan this year, including two in Kabul last month, killing at least 188 people. The number of attacks is up from just a couple nationwide last year.

It is unclear whether the all the attacks claimed by IS were carried out by the group, or linked to its central leadership in the Middle East. Afghan intelligence officials say some of the attacks may in fact have been carried out by the Taliban or its allied Haqqani network and opportunistically claimed by IS.

Yet the sheer number of attacks plus the targeting of Shi‘ite mosques, an IS hallmark, indicates the movement is gaining some strength, though their links to the leadership in the Middle East remain murky.

Some analysts see IS as an umbrella term covering groups of fighters in Nangarhar’s mountains, armed gangs in northern Afghanistan and suicide bombers in Kabul. Little is known about what ties them together.

“IS in Afghanistan never was such a solid, coherent organisation, even from the beginning,” said Borhan Osman, an International Crisis Group analyst.

“BRUTAL AND BARBARIC”

In Jawzjan, Islamic State gained its pocket of territory in much the same way it did in Nangarhar – through defection of an established militant commander.

Hekmat’s Taliban fighters had long held sway in Darz Aab and Qushtepa districts, with the Afghan government having little control, residents who fled to Shiberghan, some 120 km away (75 miles), told Reuters.

But when Hekmat had a falling-out with the central Taliban leadership and switched allegiance, his men were joined by about 400 IS-affiliated fighters from China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Chechnya and elsewhere, according to Darz Aab’s district chief, Baz Mohammad Dawar.

Foreign militants have long operated in the border areas of Afghanistan, and in Jawzjan they had typically moved from place to place, occasionally cooperating with the Taliban.

But once they came to stay, life changed for the worse, according to three families and local officials who spoke to Reuters, even by the war-weary standards of Afghanistan.

“IS took our women as slaves, or forcefully made them marry a fighter. The Taliban never did that,” said Sayed Habibullah, a Darz Aab resident.

“The Taliban had mercy and we spoke the same language, but IS fighters are foreigners, much more brutal and barbaric.”

The fighters also forced some 300 children into IS training.

“In the school, IS allocated two classes for the children to learn about guns and bombs,” said Ghawsuddin, a former headmaster in Darz Aab who, like many Afghans, goes by one name.

“OUR ENEMY”

Islamic State emerged in Afghanistan more than two years ago, when members of the Pakistani Taliban swore allegiance to the relatively new global Islamist movement that at the time had seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

By June 2015, newly IS-aligned fighters had crossed into Afghanistan and seized around half a dozen districts in Nangarhar, scorching Taliban poppy fields and forcing them to flee. (reut.rs/2j2l6Oy)

Soon after, U.S. forces began air strikes and dispatched special forces to assist Afghan troops in fighting Islamic State – also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh.

Nicholson, the commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, said on Tuesday that some 1,400 operations had been conducted against IS since March, “removing over 1,600” from the battlefield and cutting off their outside finance and support.

“Daesh has been unable to establish a caliphate in Afghanistan,” Nicholson said, adding “We see no evidence of fighters making their way from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan, because they know if they come here they will face death.”.

Even if IS is not bringing in new fighters – though that remains a fear – it is another obstacle to Afghan security after 16 years of war against the Taliban.

“Whether it is Islamic State or Taliban, they are our enemy,” said Jawzjan police chief Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani. “And they have to be eliminated.”

A bastion of Daesh ideology’s propagation, an FM radio, that continued to be tuned at 90.35 mhz in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, has been destroyed by Taliban militants, reliable sources have disclosed to thenews.com.pk.

According to the sources, the said FM radio set up by Daesh for propagating its ideology and for bringing more and more Afghans into its fold, had been airing its broadcast in the districts of Imam Sahib and Dash-e-Archi of Kunduz province.

The radio remained operational from September 28 till October 3, 2017 but was soon afterwards traced by the Taliban who destroyed it there and then after a fierce clash with the militants guarding the radio station in which 21 Daesh fighters were also killed.

The news coming from across the Pak-Afghan border, have confirmed that the Taliban inside Afghanistan are opposed to Daesh and are fighting a no-holds-barred battle with the latter, leaving no stone unturned in neutralizing the military and ideological influence of Daesh in a territory that has for long remained the stronghold (and still remains) of Taliban.

The Taliban high command and its other ranks and tiers are especially concerned over the massive bombardment of propaganda by the Daesh people assigned the task of delivering sermons to win over the confidence and loyalty of Afghans who have militaristic tendencies. The Taliban also openly reject the preaching of Daesh ideology through any means including radio broadcast.

It may be recalled that the Taliban group is widely known as a pioneer among the militant outfits in the area of FM radio stations. The chief of Taliban, who is nowadays based in Afghanistan, Mullah Fazalullah, earned the nickname of ‘Radio Mullah’ since he set up at least 30 illegal FM radio stations to get his message across. Pakistanis remember Fazalullah, though with bitter memories, for his rousing radio speeches in the Swat Valley when the TTP (Tehrike Taliban Pakistan) controlled the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan from 2007 to 2009 where he was finally defeated by Pakistani armed forces.

Mullah’s father-in-law, Sufi Muhammad, head of Tehreeke Nifaze Shariate Muhammadi (TNSM) was also one of the pioneers in the use of radio for propagating his views. Fazalullah used to incite violence in the garb of promoting jihad (holy war) besides issuing edicts against the “sins” of people outside their fold or influence or those not siding with them (Sufi Muhammad and Mullah Fazalullah).

As his track record goes, Mullah is considered a fiery orator and the most hard-line figure among the top commanders of the Pakistani Taliban movement. According to the sources, Fazalullah succeeded in building up his own support base by broadcasting fiery sermons on these illegal FM stations, the first radio station relaying his sermons from a small village mosque in Swat in 2005.

Amazingly, greater support came from womenfolk who donated cash and jewellery in response to Fazalullah’s radio sermons broadcast from his mosque in Swat’s Imam Dehri village.

But once Fazalullah established his control, women suffered greatly at his hands as he discouraged them from going outside, promoted forced marriages in addition to forcibly ‘ordering’ the closure of girls’ schools.

An airstrike has been carried out on the compound of a commander of the notorious Haqqani terrorist network in the tribal regions of Pakistan, it has been reported by khaama.com.

According to the local media reports in Pakistan, the airstrike was carried out earlier today in the vicinity of Kurram Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Region of Pakistan.

The reports further add that three people were killed in the attack on commander Rashid’s compound which is located in Ghauz Garhi area.

The Pakistani government officials have not formally commented regarding the airstrike so far.

The latest airstrike targeting the compound of Haqqani network commander takes place amid growing pressures on Pakistan regarding the terror safe havens, particularly the Haqqani network sanctuaries, which the officials are saying have remained intact despite the major operations launched by the military of the country.

The US President Donald Trump announced the new strategy of Washington regarding South Asia in mid-August this year and criticized Pakistan for remaining reckless to act against certain terror groups still operating in its soil.

The top US commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Nicholson on Tuesday said that the leadership of the Taliban group still resides in Pakistan.

Six Daesh (Islamic State) fighters have been killed and as many wounded during a clash in the Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province, the army said on Wednesday according to pajhwok.com.

A statement from the 201st Selab Military Corps said the gunbattle erupted between the insurgent groups in the Pirkhel area of the district. Six Daesh rebels were killed and 12 others, including eight Taliban, wounded.

Taliban confirmed the firefight. Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s spokesman, said in a statement the IS fighters captured civilian homes and forced area people to leave.

He said Taliban militants had reclaimed some areas since Tuesday, but the government and US forces targeted them in support of Daesh.

But provincial authorities rejected the claim. Daesh has said nothing in this regard so far.

NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Nicholson, says IS fighters in Nangarhar had been defeated and many of the rebel outfit’s leaders killed.

The Taliban insurgents have executed their own leader over alleged links with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

According to the local officials, the incident took place recently in the vicinity of Shirzad district, home to several Taliban militants.

The officials further added that the Taliban group leader killed by his own fighters has been identified Mawlavi Shukoor.

The provincial government media office in a statemetn also confirmed that armed Taliban insurgents covered with masks executed their leader over alleged ties with the ISIS group in Shirzad district.

The statement further added that the Taliban leader was killled in Karki Khel area of the of Shirzad.

The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.

This comes as at least fifteen militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group offshoot, ISIS Khorsan, were beheaded by their own comrades in this province last week.

According to the local officials, the incident took place recently in the restive Achin district.

The provincial government media office in a statement the incident took place in Surkhab Bazar area of Mamand Dara in Achin.

Heavily armed Taliban insurgents stormed security posts in Deh Yak district of southern Ghazni province last night and the ensuing clash left seven dead and 14 wounded on both sides, police said Friday according to pajhwok.com.

It was the third such attack from the resurgent Taliban in Rabat area of the district in less than a month, causing casualties to security forces in each attack.

Ghazni police chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zaman told Pajhwok Afghan News on Friday that a large number of militants attacked security posts in the area late last night.

He said six Taliban and one policeman were killed and 10 Taliban and four policemen were wounded in the firefight.

Local residents confirmed the hours-long clash, saying both the sides used heavy and light weapons.

Noor Rahman, one of the residents, said: “Many police suffered casualties after the Taliban came closer to the posts, in the morning more police arrived and they removed the dead and wounded.”

The Taliban claimed inflicting heavy casualties on government forces in Rabat where a base of the forces was attacked.

Their spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said 24 security personnel had been killed and their three armored vehicles and one pick up vehicle destroyed in the assault.

The Taliban have previously attacked security posts in the same area twice before the last night attack in about one month.

Separately, three suspected Taliban were killed in a blast caused by their own explosives in Khashk area of Ghazni City, the provincial capital, last night.

The provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zaman, said the rebels were emplacing an improvised explosive device on the highway in Khashk area when it went off, causing the casualties.

At least fifteen militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group offshoot, ISIS Khorsan, were beheaded by their own comrades in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

According to the local officials, the incident took place recently in the restive Achin district.

The provincial government media office in a statement the incident took place in Surkhab Bazar area of Mamand Dara in Achin.

The statement further added that the ISIS fighters beheaded their 15 comrades after an infighting erupted among them due to unknown reasons.

According to the provincial government, the beheading of the fifteen men has resulted into a major crack among the ISIS ranks in this province and there are fears more violence and infighting among the group.

The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.

Nangarhar is among the relatively calm provinces however the Taliban and ISIS militants have increased their insurgency activities in some its remote parts during the recent years.

Numerous incidents of infighting have been reported from this province among the Taliban and ISIS militants but this is the first time an infighting has been reported among the own ranks of ISIS.

This comes as several militants loyal to the terror group were killed in the latest airstrikes conducted by the US forces based in Afghanistan.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan military in the East said the latest airstrikes were carried out in Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province.

The Silab Corps officials are saying that the hideouts of the terror group were targeted by unmanned aerial vehicles in Payin area of the district.

The officials further added at least ten ISIS militants were killed in the airstrikes but no casualties were incurred to the local residents or security personnel.