Afghan Forces Kill Up to 50 IS Fighters
Authorities in eastern Afghanistan say counterterrorism army operations have killed up to 50 Islamic State militants, including three senior commanders. The overnight deaths occurred in the district of Achin, an IS stronghold in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan. A regional military spokesman told VOA’s Afghan service on Wednesday there were 12 foreign militants […]
Massive Bomb Strike Divides Afghan Opinion with Critics Questioning Motives
U.S. use of a massive bomb against Islamic State extemists in Afghanistan has proven divisive in the region, winning support from political and military authorities in Kabul but strong condemnations from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan. In a series of three tweets, Karzai said, “I vehemently and in strongest words […]
Q&A: Islamic State has fewer than 1,000 fighters in Afghanistan. So why did Trump drop the ‘mother of all bombs’?
On Thursday night, the U.S. military unleashed a 20,000-pound bomb — one of the largest non-nuclear weapons in its arsenal — on a tunnel complex the Pentagon said was used by Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan. It was a dramatic escalation of American operations against the militant group’s affiliate in South Asia. It also […]
US drops ‘mother of all bombs’ on ISIL in Afghanistan
The United States has dropped a massive GBU-43 bomb, the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, in eastern Afghanistan on a series of caves used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Pentagon. The bomb was dropped on Thursday from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district […]