Over 1,400 Daesh affiliates ‘surrender’ in Afghanistan

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - Over 1,400 Daesh/ISIS-linked terrorists, including hundreds of fighters, have surrendered in the past one and half month to Afghan forces, an official statement said on Friday.

The statement by the Interior Ministry said that 450 Daesh fighters surrendered along with their families to the security forces from their long-held bastions in southern remote parts of Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan’s restive tribal belt.

It added the robust security operations backed by the locals help force the terrorists to surrender.

The local Tolo News reported that militants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Iran as well as Kurds were among them.

This came a day after the U.S. acknowledged for the first time the Taliban's role in this regard.

“The recent campaign in Nangarhar is one example. Effective operations by US/Coalition & Afghan security forces, as well as the Taliban, led to ISIS-K (Daesh’s Khorasan/ Afghanistan chapter) losing territory & fighters. Hundreds surrendered. ISIS-K hasn’t been eliminated but this is real progress”, Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. peace negotiator for Afghanistan tweeted earlier this week.

In April 2017, the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan dropped the Mother of All Bombs on the Daesh’s network of tunnels in Nangarhar killing at least 90 militants.

Meanwhile, the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, had charged the government forces for "rescuing Daesh fighters who were under the siege of the Taliban" in the area.