The Taliban have initiated a crackdown on alleged Islamic State (IS) or Daesh sanctuaries in Kandahar, officials revealed on Monday, after an increase in bloody attacks by the group in past few weeks.
The operation against Islamic State-Khorasan, the local chapter of the jihadist group, began around midnight in at least four districts of Kandahar province and continued through Monday morning, Taliban provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Mohammadi stated.
“So far, four Daesh (IS) fighters have been killed and ten arrested, one of them blew himself up inside a house,” he said. A member of the Taliban intelligence agency who refused to be named said at least three citizens were killed in the operation.
Local media cited a Taliban official as saying there had also been an explosion in a western suburb of Kabul Monday morning with no dead. In the three months since the Taliban established their power, IS-K has been on the go in Jalalabad, Kunduz, Kandahar and Kabul.
Previous month the group admitted responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in Kandahar that murdered at least 60 people and injured scores more. That attack came a week after another lethal mosque blast accepted by IS-K in northern Kunduz province killed more than 60 people.
