Afghanistan: Over 600 Daesh/ISIS affiliates surrendered

KABUL, Afghanistan

Over 600 Daesh/ISIS affiliates, including Pakistanis, Central Asians and Iranians, surrendered over the past two weeks in Afghanistan, said the country’s Defense Ministry on Saturday.

Days after Afghan officials announced clearing the long-held bastions of Daesh/ISIS in the country’s east, along the disputed Durand Line border with Pakistan, the Defense Ministry said 18 more militants, accompanied by 24 women and 31 children, surrendered on Friday.

With this, the total number of those associated with the group surrendering surpassed 600, it said.

The ministry said the robust clean-up operation forced militants to surrender.

The local Tolo News reported that among them were militants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Iran as well as Kurdish people.

The Interior Minister Masoud Andrabi said on Sunday the local Daesh, the so-called Islamic State-Khorasan or IS-K, has been “completely defeated and driven out” of their strongholds in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Addressing a new conference in the province, Andrabi said the militants are striving for alternate bastions in the country, but the security forces are well-prepared to fight them.

However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed blamed the government forces for "rescuing Daesh fighters who were under the siege of the Taliban" in the area.