At least 5 killed in operation against IS in Afghanistan

Kabul, Nov 15 (EFE).- At least three members of the Islamic State terror group and two civilians were killed on Monday in an overnight operation of the Taliban’s security forces against the group in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The operation took place after midnight in the city of Kandahar, capital of the eponymous province, as part of a larger push to end the terror group in Afghanistan, which includes arrests of the militants.

“Operation conducted in Police District 4 (of Kandahar) in which 3 Daish (IS) seditionists have been killed, and two civilians martyred, and our Mujahideen don’t have any causalities,” interior ministry spokesperson Qari Sayeed Khosti told EFE.

Local media outlets also reported operations in other areas of the city, but Khosti rejected this.

Khalil Ahmad, a witness of the operation in PD4, told EFE that “the operation started at midnight with gunfire, which continued for almost an hour,” adding that he did not know about the number of casualties.

The Taliban have been carrying out a series of operations against the IS across the country, and claim to have killed or arrested dozens of its fighters in at least 34 Afghan provinces, apart from several militants surrendering themselves.

The operations began after successive attacks claimed by the IS took place in several provinces after the Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, targeting the ruling group, minorities or general population.

The largest attack by the terror groups in recent months targeted the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, killing over 170 people as Afghans tried to flee the country in evacuation flights.

Later, an IS suicide bombing at a mosque of the Shia minority, which the group considers apostates, left at least 80 people dead and around 100 injured on Oct. 8 in the northern Kunduz province, while a similar attack a week later in Kandahar killed 60 people.

Analysts and experts have warned that the IS has become the biggest security threat for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, after the withdrawal of international troops and the limited operational capacity of opposition forces. EFE