Afghanistan: Daesh, Taliban fight for turf, kill scores

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

Dozens of militants have been killed in ongoing clashes between pro-Daesh and Taliban militants in northern Jawzjan province bordering Turkmenistan within the last three days, according to regional police chief Tuesday.

Jawzjan police chief Faqir Mohammad said the fighting broke out three days ago in the restive Qosh Tapa district.

“By Tuesday, 42 Taliban and up to six Daeshi [pro-Daesh militants] have been killed,” Mohammad told Anadolu Agency.

He added that two pro-Daesh militants also carried out suicide attacks on the Taliban in the area.

The fighting in Jawzjan has forced hundreds of families to flee the restive Qosh Tapa district, and add to the tally of tens of thousands of internally displaced persons the Kabul government is coping with across the war-ravaged country.

Aminullah Amin, governor of Qosh Tapa district, said more than a hundred families have fled the area.

The pro-Daesh militants in Afghanistan are mostly concentrated in eastern parts of the country bordering Pakistan’s tribal areas, but the group has lately been making inroads in the northern provinces as well such as Jawzjan, Sar-i-Pul and Faryab bordering the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Many fighters associated with this group are believed to be of Central Asian, Arab, Chechen, Pakistani and Uyghur origins.

Among a number of other attacks, Daesh’s offshoot in Afghanistan, the ISIS-Khurasan, claimed responsibility for the massacre of 54 people in northern Sar-e-Pul province in August.