Taliban launch assault on ISIS in southern Afghanistan

The Taliban launched the assault on Monday (November 15th) against several suspected caches of the local branch of the jihadist group Islamic State in Kandahar province, in southern Afghanistan, AFP learned from a police source.

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This operation against the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) was launched around midnight in four districts of the province and continued into the morning, Taliban provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Mohammadi told AFP.

"

", he asserted.

At least 3 civilians killed

A member of the Taliban intelligence service who requested anonymity told AFP that at least three civilians were killed.

Since their return to power in Kabul on August 15, the Taliban, which has made security their priority after decades of war, have faced a wave of attacks led by IS-K.

This group is particularly active around the city of Jalalabad (East), one of its long-standing strongholds where it has already targeted the Taliban on several occasions.

It also targeted the Shiite minority in Kunduz (northeast), Kabul and in the city of Kandahar where an attack on one of its mosques in mid-October left at least 60 dead.

IS-K, which had been severely weakened in 2019 by operations by the Afghan army, assisted by the United States, and by its rivalry with the Taliban, has regained new impetus with the latter's return to power .

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A Sunni Islamist group, like the Taliban, it is even more rigorous and advocates a "

".

ISIS is the main threat to the Taliban power, even if it tends to minimize its influence.