Afghan Forces Launch Attacks to Clear Warring Militants From East

Date: 30 April 2019 - 21:19

News ID: ۶۵۴۰۲

KABUL (Dispatches) – Afghan government forces have launched attacks in a bid to clear rival militants who have been battling each other for territory near the Pakistan border in fighting that has forced thousands of villagers from their homes, officials said on Tuesday.
Taliban and Daesh terrorists have been fighting for more than a week in the eastern border province of Nangarhar, since Daesh terrorists seized six villages in an area where the mineral talc is mined.
There has been no comment Daesh or information about casualties it has sustained in the clashes, some of the heaviest between the rival factions over the past year.
The Taliban said in a statement on Tuesday that Afghan soldiers backed by U.S. forces had killed seven civilians in raids in Nangarhar, decrying their "ruthless savagery”. The statement did not give details about the continuing clashes.
Late on Monday, Afghan government forces launched attacks including air strikes to push the terrorists out of the area, officials said.
The main government intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, said in a statement that 22 Daesh terrorists had been killed and two of their weapons caches destroyed.
The provincial governor’s spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani, said that while Monday night’s attacks were aimed at "eliminating” Daesh in the area, the government wanted to clear out the Taliban too.
"The government is fighting both militant groups,” Khogyani said.
Sohrab Qaderi, a provincial council member in Nangarhar, said more than 9,000 families had been displaced by the clashes between the terrorist groups.
Qaderi also said the government strikes did not appear to have ended the fighting between them, and that some villagers’ homes had been damaged in the air strikes.
Nangarhar province has large deposits of talc and other minerals such as chromite and marble, and sits on major smuggling routes into Pakistan.
Illegal mining of talc, used in products ranging from paint to baby powder, is a major source of revenue for insurgents in Nangarhar, where Daesh has its stronghold.
Daesh terrorists first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in around 2014 and have battled the Taliban as well as government and foreign forces. The U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000 Daesh terrorists in Afghanistan.