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ISIS loses more than half its fighters from US airstrikes and Taliban ground operations
[MilitaryTimes] The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s Afghanistan branch has lost more than half its fighters due to Afghan and U.S. Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s, and ground operations conducted by Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
 fighters, according to a recent inspector general report.

Officials with U.S. Forces Afghanistan said it was hard to estimate the number of remaining ISIS fighters in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials claimed in September the terrorist group was capable of fielding between 2,000 and 5,000 fighters, the IG report detailed.

Afghanistan’s ISIS offshoot lost its home turf in Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
 Province in November, forcing 300 of the jihadi fighters to surrender to Afghan forces.

But the terrorist group continues to limp on despite intense military pressure against the group over the last five months.

Despite a reduction in violence agreement hashed out between the Taliban and the U.S., American warplanes have continued to conduct offensive operations and strikes against the Islamic hard boy group.

ISIS is not party to the seven day reduction in violence deal between the U.S. and Taliban, which went into effect Feb. 22. The U.S. and the Taliban are expected to sign a long-term peace deal on Feb. 29 that could lead to the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Col. Sonny Leggett, a front man for U.S. Forces Afghanistan, tweeted early Thursday morning that airstrikes on Wednesday killed three ISIS fighters in Kunar Province
...one of the four N2KL provinces (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman). N2KL is the designation used by US and Coalition Forces for the rugged and very violent region opposite Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Northwest Frontier Province. Kunar is the center of the N2KL region. Its population is 95% Pashtun. It is adjacent to Bajaur Agency..
 and forced 34 ISIS snuffies to surrender to Afghan forces in Tswokey district.

On Tuesday, Leggett announced the U.S. had conducted two airstrikes in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, targeting and killing four ISIS fighters.

"We continue to eliminate ISIS murderous Moslems wherever they hide to protect Afghanistan while honoring US-Afghan-Taliban agreement to reduce the violence," Leggett tweeted Tuesday.

U.S. officials admit ISIS’ collapse in Nangarhar was also a result of sustained ground operations carried out by America’s long-time foe in Afghanistan, the Taliban.

"Following months of sustained pressure from both the United States and the Taliban, ISIS-K snuffies in Nangarhar surrendered en masse," the IG report details.
Posted by: trailing wife 2020-02-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=564696