IS fighters kill at least two officers in first attack on Afghan police posts
AFP
JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN- Self-proclaimed fighters from the Islamic State group have for the first time launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in an eastern Afghan province, killing at least two officers, officials said Sunday.
The raids on eight to 10 police posts began early Sunday, said Haji Ghalib, governor of Achin district in Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan.
"This is the first time that Daesh fighters have launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in Nangarhar," he told AFP.
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group, which controls wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The border police commander in eastern Afghanistan, Mohammad Ayoub Hussainkhail, said the attacks in Achin left two border police officers dead.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi gave a higher toll of three killed.
"Two members of border police and one local police were killed," he said, adding that the police forces had responded to the attack with a "counter-attack backed by airstrikes".
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency said on its Twitter feed that "85 ISIS fighters died" in the clashes.
A UN report written in June and published on Friday, warned that IS was making inroads in Afghanistan, winning over a growing number of sympathisers and recruiting followers in 25 of the country's 34 provinces.
Afghan security forces told UN sanctions monitors that about 10 percent of the Taliban insurgency are IS sympathisers, according to the report by the UN's Al-Qaeda monitoring team.
The jihadist group has been trying to establish itself in Afghanistan and challenging the Taliban on their own turf.
Some Taliban insurgents, particularly in the restive eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, have adopted the IS flag to rebrand themselves as a more lethal force as NATO combat troops depart after 14 years of war.
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Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group, which controls wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The border police commander in eastern Afghanistan, Mohammad Ayoub Hussainkhail, said the attacks in Achin left two border police officers dead.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi gave a higher toll of three killed.
"Two members of border police and one local police were killed," he said, adding that the police forces had responded to the attack with a "counter-attack backed by airstrikes".
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agency said on its Twitter feed that "85 ISIS fighters died" in the clashes.
A UN report written in June and published on Friday, warned that IS was making inroads in Afghanistan, winning over a growing number of sympathisers and recruiting followers in 25 of the country's 34 provinces.
Afghan security forces told UN sanctions monitors that about 10 percent of the Taliban insurgency are IS sympathisers, according to the report by the UN's Al-Qaeda monitoring team.
The jihadist group has been trying to establish itself in Afghanistan and challenging the Taliban on their own turf.
Some Taliban insurgents, particularly in the restive eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, have adopted the IS flag to rebrand themselves as a more lethal force as NATO combat troops depart after 14 years of war.
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