Taliban Target ISIS Hideouts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar

The Taliban say they have killed a number of ISIS operatives during an operation against the Takfiri terrorist group’s hideouts in southern Afghanistan.

Taliban provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Mohammadi said on Monday that at least four Takfiri terrorists were killed and 10 others arrested during the crackdown across various districts of Kandahar province over the past 24 hours.

“So far, four ISIS fighters have been killed and ten arrested… one of them blew himself up inside a house,” he added.

A Taliban official later said two civilians were also “martyred” in the crossfire.

The new operation follows a bout of terrorist attacks claimed by ISIS across Afghanistan.

In the most recent incident of violence, local media quoting a Taliban official, reported there had also been a blast in a western suburb of Kabul on Monday morning.

ISIS on Sunday claimed responsibility for a bomb that destroyed a minibus in the capital Kabul at the weekend. The bomb blast hit a vehicle near a Taliban checkpoint in a mainly Shia neighborhood, leaving an unknown number of casualties.

Media reports said a well-known local journalist and up to two others were killed in the explosion. Dasht-e Barchi is a Kabul suburb dominated by members of the mostly Shia Hazara community.

Earlier this month, ISIS terrorists raided the city’s National Military Hospital, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 50 others. The group also targeted mosques in a series of bombings that killed scores of Shia Muslim worshipers.

Nangarhar is considered as the heartland of ISIS in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, took power again on August 15 as the US was in the middle of a chaotic troop withdrawal. The group announced the formation of a caretaker government on September 7. No country has yet recognized their rule.

Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Monday that the United States and NATO failed to bring peace and security to Afghanistan despite their presence in the country for two decades.

Afghanistan is facing what the UN agencies have described as “one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.” Western countries have cut off aid to the country since the Taliban laid siege to Kabul.