More than a dozen Daesh militants were killed in a drone attack in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night, just hours after President Ashraf Ghani said his country was becoming a “graveyard” for members of the terrorist group, a government official said.
Unlike its branches in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Daesh’s Afghan offshoot has struggled to establish a foothold in the country, partly because of tough resistance from security forces and the Taliban.
Most of those pledging loyalty to the organisation are thought to be disgruntled Taliban fighters. Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said Sunday’s operation occurred in the Achin district killing 15 Daesh members, the international media reported.
“No civilians were harmed in the attack,” he said. “If all drone attacks continue like this, then it will not be difficult to eradicate the insurgency in the country.” Col. Michael Lawhorn, spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, confirmed American troops conducted counterterrorism airstrikes in the region but did not elaborate.
Speaking at the opening of the Afghan parliament on Sunday, Ghani said Daesh essentially had been defeated in the eastern border regions near Pakistan, where the group had overtaken some remote districts over the past year.
“Afghanistan will be their graveyard,” he said. His comments followed a three-week campaign by the Afghan security forces and the air force that targeted Daesh militants in Nangarhar and left nearly 300 dead or wounded, the province’s media office said in a statement. An estimated 1,000 to 3,000 Daesh fighters are thought to be based in Afghanistan’s mountainous border regions.
thenews.com.pk
