| More on this story from yesterday. |
...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
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) group in Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money...
said on Tuesday, hours after a prisoner swap with Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...bully boyz raised hopes of a lull in violence in the country.
More than 600 fighters from IS, locally known as ISIS, have surrendered with their families to the Afghan government in past weeks. Officials said air strikes by Afghan and coalition forces, lack of funds and low morale have forced the group to give up.
"No one believed one year ago that we would stand up and today be saying we have obliterated ISIS," Ghani told a gathering of elders and officials in Jalalabad, the main city of eastern 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 that saw a wave of suicide kabooms in past years claimed by the jihadists.
"Now that ISIS murderous Moslems have surrendered, I ask authorities to treat their families humanely," Ghani added.
The government said among fighters in its custody are foreign nationals from Pakistain, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the Maldives.
However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
the Afghan Taliban, which has been battling IS and the government for control of the country, disputed that.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s official front man, described Ghani’s announcement as "absurd".
"Kabul admin had 0% role in defeat of ISIS and the proud people of Nangarhar are witnesses," he tweeted.
The Taliban controls more territory than at any point since the US invasion in 2001, including sections of Nangarhar province.
Related:
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 US-led coalition, Iraq counter-terror forces, PMF press on with anti-ISIS operations
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 Yezidi woman reportedly killed by Turkish-backed group in Syria’s Afrin
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 Indonesia police link suicide bombing to Islamic State-inspired group
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 US-led coalition, Iraq counter-terror forces, PMF press on with anti-ISIS operations
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 Yezidi woman reportedly killed by Turkish-backed group in Syria’s Afrin
Islamic State: 2019-11-19 Indonesia police link suicide bombing to Islamic State-inspired group