Daesh capacity to use foreign fighters in the north disrupted: NATO

KABUL said on Friday.

 “These IS-K fighters are primarily Pakistani Pashtun in a statement.

“They have another segment of Islamic Movement Uzbekistan. And then there’s probably ten per cent that’s from a variety of sources around the world.”

The two Islamic Sstate-Khorasan commanders Omair and Abu Samaya were killed on March 16 in a US airstrike as the duo met in Sar-i- Pul province.

They were killed  less than two months the Afghan forces captured Khitab, IS head facilitators of foreign fighters in northern Jawzjan province on Jan. 28.

Afghan and US forces delivered another blow to IS-K during a partnered nighttime raid in the isolated village of Mughul in Darzab district of Jawzjan on Mar. 22.

NATO said the tactical defeat of IS-K fighters in Jawzjan was the most recent in a series of Afghan and US SOF counterterrorism successes targeting the outfit in northern Afghanistan this year.

"Every day, we’re going against IS-K," said Nicholson. "They were in southern Nangarhar. If you were to go there today, you would see some of the valleys that have been liberated from IS-K: the populations returning, the kids going back into school."

IS-K is despised by the overwhelming majority of Afghans, and is ineffective in recruiting from the Afghan population. They rely on external support for fighters, equipment and financing, and exploit tribal rivalries for short-term allegiance.

 “There will be no safe haven for any terrorist group,” said Nicholson. “We continue to strike them wherever we find them. We continue to hunt them across the country.”

pr/ma