The Defense Ministry says the military operation against Daesh is ongoing in Pachir Aw Agam district in the southeast of Nangarhar province and security forces will soon reach to the Tora Bora region recently captured by the group.
The security forces are determined to defeat and eradicate Daesh from the area, the Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said on Friday.
Daesh captured the strategic Tora Bora region on Tuesday. The area was used as a hideout by Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, who was killed in a U.S operation in 2011.
“Our security forces are in Pachir Aw Agam district and Daesh will be eliminated in the near future. The military operation against Daesh will continue without any delay,” Waziri said.
Meanwhile, Nangarhar Police Chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said Tora Bora will never turn into a safe haven for Daesh fighters.
“They (Daesh fighters) have come to Pachir Aw Agam (district), but they will be defeated. Daesh and their supporters should be aware that there is no place for them (in the district),” Rahimi said.
Reports indicate that at least 600 families have left their houses in Dara-e-Sulaimankhail village close to Tora Bora area in Pachir Aw Agam district.
“Daesh came and captured the (Tora Bora) area and we left our villages,” a resident of Sulaimankhil said.
“Our goods have remained in our houses and all the people have fled,” another resident of Sulaimankhil said.
A number of military analysts said the presence of Daesh in Tora Bora would pose a serious threat to Nangarhar and its neighboring provinces.
“The reason behind the changing of Daesh into a big threat is that we (government) concentrate on others instead of those who are killing the people and who loots their properties,” said Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, former deputy minister of interior.
On Thursday, Abdul Saboor Sabet, the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Nangarhar, claimed that Pakistani militia fully supported Daesh in their offensive against the Tora Bora region this week in eastern Nangarhar province.
In a trip to Nangarhar’s Chaparhar district on Thursday, Sabet said that Pakistani militia are still backing Daesh militants in the region.
“Daesh militants sustained heavy loses, whenever they suffer a toll, they get reinforcements from the other side of the border who are the Pakistani militias. The (Afghan) public uprising forces are bravely defending all districts against the enemies,” said Sabet.
Earlier this week Waziri stated that up to 700 Daesh operatives had been killed in Nangarhar as a result of a military operation by security forces over the past three months.