In a new threat to stability in Afghanistan, Islamic State fighters have seized substantial territory, for the first time, wresting areas in the east from rival Taliban insurgents, officials and witnesses have said.
Hundreds of insurgents pledging allegiance to Islamic State pushed out the Taliban, scorching opium and poppy fields that help to fund the Taliban’s campaign to overthrow the Afghan government, witnesses fleeing from the fighting in Nangarhar province told Reuters.
Directives purportedly from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s Middle East-based chief were also distributed. It is unclear whether they were translations of previous edicts or were specifically issued for the Afghan theatre.
They (IS loyalists) came in on many white pickup trucks mounted with big machine guns and fought the Taliban. The Taliban could not resist and fled.
— Haji Abdul Jan, a tribal elder from Achin district
Before he fled to Jalalabad, Jan saw the clashes and said that some of the villagers had welcomed the ISIS fighters.
Unlike the Taliban, they (IS) don’t force villagers to feed and house them. Instead, they have lots of cash in their pockets and spend it on food and luring young villagers to join them.
— Haji Abdul Jan
It is clear from these accounts that Islamic State fighters pose an increasingly persistent threat. Most IS loyalists are former Taliban cadres accompanied by dozens of foreign fighters, witnesses have said.
The foreign fighters, whose identities remain unknown, preach in mosques with the help of translators, and the ISIS’ black flag was hoisted in some areas. The fighters are suspected to be from among the hundreds of militants from around the world who already hide out along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
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