Daesh ‘defeated’ in key Afghan province: official

Forces with Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security escort an alleged militant as Taliban and Daesh fighters in this May 23, 2019 photo. (AFP)

• The claim comes after the militants first burst into Afghanistan’s conflict in 2015
• Daesh ‘were defeated in Nangarhar, their centers were destroyed,‘ acting interior minister Massoud Andarabi said

JALALABAD, Afghanistan: The Daesh group’s Afghan branch has been “defeated” in one of the key eastern provinces where it first sought to establish a stronghold, a top Afghan security official said Sunday.
The claim comes after the militants first burst into Afghanistan’s conflict in 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 of horrific bombings across Afghanistan, including at a wedding hall in Kabul, and have been continually attacked by US, Afghan and even Taliban forces.
Daesh “were defeated in Nangarhar, their centers were destroyed,” acting interior minister Massoud Andarabi told reporters in Jalalabad, the Nangarhar provincial capital, amid ongoing operations against the militants.
“We will soon destroy their last centers. With the people’s help, we will completely eliminate them. Some of their smaller groups are surrendering, other small groups will be eliminated in other provinces.”
He went on to say that Daesh were being “completely defeated” in Afghanistan.
US Forces-Afghanistan, which closely monitors the Daesh footprint in Afghanistan, declined to comment, referring a query back to the Interior Ministry.
Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for Nangarhar’s governor, said 32 Daesh fighters surrendered to government forces on Saturday.
“They are coming in big numbers,” he said.
Daesh have suffered a string of major defeats in recent months, including the collapse of their self-proclaimed “caliphate” in Syria and the death of the group’s leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syria last month.
Connections between Baghdadi and the Daesh affiliate in Afghanistan, better known as Daesh in the Khorasan, or Daesh-K, have always been murky.
But Khogyani said Baghdadi’s death had disrupted Daesh-K’s command and control structure.
“It has affected the fighters on the ground here, they are either surrendering to the government or going back to their ordinary lives,” he said.