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A28 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 4 augusT 2020
Afghan forces retake prison after deadly attack by IS group

By RAHMAT GUL and RAHIM quently deployed in Af-
FAIEZ ghanistan," he said. "It am-
Associated Press plifies, for Kabul and Wash-
JALALABAD, Afghanistan ington and other NATO
(AP) — Militants affiliated partners, just how serious
with the Islamic State group the ISIS challenge remains."
stormed a prison in eastern On Saturday, authorities
Afghanistan in a daylong said Afghan special forces
siege that left at least 39 killed a senior Islamic State
people dead, including the commander near Jalala-
assailants, and freed nearly bad.
400 of their fighters before The Taliban's political
security forces restored or- spokesman, Suhail Sha-
der, a government official heen, told the AP that his
said Monday. group was not involved in
The attack underscored the prison attack.
that the Islamic State af- "We have a cease-fire and
filiate in Afghanistan is still are not involved in any of
a formidable presence, these attacks anywhere in
and it highlighted the chal- the country," he said.
lenges ahead as U.S. and The Taliban had declared
NATO forces begin to with- a three-day cease-fire
draw following Washing- starting Friday for the ma-
ton's peace deal with the jor Muslim holiday of Eid
Taliban. al-Adha. The cease-fire ex-
The peace accord aims to pired at midnight Sunday,
recruit the Taliban to battle although it wasn't imme-
the militants from IS, which diately clear if it would be
U.S. officials have told The extended.
Associated Press is the The U.S. reached the peace
Americans' biggest foe in deal with the Taliban in Feb-
Afghanistan. Both the Tal- ruary, but a second, crucial
iban and the IS affiliate are round of negotiations be-
staunch rivals. tween the Taliban and the
At least 10 of the dead Afghan security personnel take position on the top of a building where insurgents were hiding, in political leadership in Kabul
were IS militants involved the city of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. has yet to begin.
in the assault to free their Associated Press Washington has been
comrades from the prison pushing for an early start to
in Jalalabad, the capital of even after the security forc- his name as Azizullah, said the attack. The militants intra-Afghan negotiations
Nangarhar province, said es retook the prison and he heard the powerful ex- have established a base in that have repeatedly been
Ajmal Omar, a provincial began recapturing some plosion, followed by the Nangarhar Province. delayed since the Taliban
council member. The rest of of the inmates. militants storming into the Afghanistan has seen a re- accord was reached.
the dead were believed to Of the five prisoners killed main prison block, shouting cent surge in violence, with While the Islamic State
be prisoners, civilians and by the militants, at least for their fighters and telling most attacks claimed by IS group has seen its so-called
Afghan forces, although three were members of the them to flee. militants. U.S. and Afghan caliphate stretching across
no official breakdown was Taliban, showing the ten- "The aim of this attack was forces — along with the Tal- Iraq and Syria eliminated
given. sions between the two fac- to rescue all Daesh mem- iban — have pounded IS after years of fighting, the
Another 50 people were tions. bers inside the prison, and positions. group has continued its
wounded in the attack that An AP photographer who unfortunately that included While the group's strength attacks in Afghanistan.
began Sunday when a sui- went inside the prison, five or six senior Daesh peo- might have been reduced, The extremists also have
cide bomber detonated which houses about 1,500 ple," Omar said, using an analysts say it is still able to battled the Taliban, which
his explosives-packed ve- inmates, said he saw the Arabic acronym for the Is- stage such high-profile at- was overthrown by the U.S.
hicle at the entrance to the bodies of five of the attack- lamic State group, which is tacks such as the jailbreak. in 2001 American-led inva-
prison complex some 115 ers and at least four prison- also known as ISIS. Among "Rumors of the demise sion following the Sept. 11
kilometers (70 miles) east of ers. the prisoners who escaped of ISIS in Afghanistan are attacks.
Kabul, Omar said. Omar said about 430 pris- was the group's shadow greatly exaggerated. It re- A United Nations report re-
Other militants simultane- oners stayed in their cells governor for neighboring tains the capacity to carry leased last month estimat-
ously stormed the prison or hid during the siege. It Kunar Province, he said. out attacks, and it contin- ed the membership of IS in
and took up positions in was unclear Monday how The Islamic State affiliate ues to gain new recruits Afghanistan at 2,200. While
nearby residential build- may prisoners remained at in Afghanistan, known as ranging from disaffected its leadership has been de-
ings. They fired on Afghan large. IS in Khorasan Province, former Taliban fighters to pleted, IS still counts among
troops for several hours, One inmate, who gave claimed responsibility for newly radicalized young its leaders a Syrian national
Afghans," said Michael Abu Said Mohammad al-
Kugelman, deputy director Khorasani.
of the Asia Program at the The report also said the
Washington-based Wilson monitoring team had re-
Center. ceived information that two
"The attack on the jail took senior Islamic State com-
place in terrain where ISIS manders, Abu Qutaibah
has long had a deep pres- and Abu Hajar al-Iraqi, had
ence, and it used tactics recently arrived in Afghani-
that the group has fre- stan from the Middle East.q