Five days after U.S Forces dropped its most powerful conventional bomb on a system of tunnels and caves used by Daesh in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a security source told TOLOnews that the majority of insurgents killed in blast were members of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and members of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
The TTP and Lashkar-e-Taiba members were from the Orakzai tribe.
According to the source, alongside dozens of Pakistani nationals, twelve Tajikistanis and thirteen Indian nationals who had joined Daesh were also killed in the bombing in Achin district.
The source said that at least 13 Daesh commanders were among the 96 killed in the “Mother of All Bombs”.
The following are names of some of the militants killed in the raid.
• Shahid Omar, member of TTP
• Welcome, brother of Hafiz Saeed
• Commander Mukhtar, retired Pakistani army officer
• Commander Abu Bakr, Daesh’s chief of operations
• Sheikh Weqas, member of Lashkar-e-Taiba
• Commander Mohammad, an Indian national
• Geeta, an Indian national
• Yasir, known as Khurasani, a member of Orakzai tribe
• Commander Imran, a member of Orakzai tribe
• Commander Aftab, from Pakistani province of Punjab
• Hamza Orakzai, a member of Orakzai tribe
• Commander Hanif Kunari, a member of the Orakzai tribe
• Hajji Saad Kunari, a member of the Orakzai tribe
“When the central core of a group is destroyed, then the group is disintegrated and it also weakens their followers,” said Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
Intelligence services in Tajikistan and India have confirmed the death of their citizens in the raid.
But Daesh activities are not restricted to only the eastern province of Nangarhar.
In recent months, Daesh operatives have also tried to gain footholds in provinces such as Kunar, Sar-e-Pul, Zabul, Ghor and Jawzjan.
“The MOAB bombing was a serious mission. If the bombing has eliminated Daesh, we welcome this, but we also need to consider the safety of people,” said former military officer Atiqullah Omarkhail.
“Daesh affiliates pose serious threats to the people; their operatives beheaded children in Sayyad district of Sar-e-Pul and set homes ablaze and plundered assets belonging to the people,” said MP Sayed Hussain Sharifi Balkhabi.
Commander of NATO's Resolute Support Mission (RS) in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said at a press conference following the MOAB bombing: "This operation is conducted on those enemy that are inside the borders of Afghanistan, so Daesh as we know, is constituted of fighters who were originally members of the TTP, who came from the ORCSI agency of Pakistan...they also have membership from the Islamic Movement in Uzbekistan, and some local Taliban have joined ISIS-K.
"So these primarily are who we are fighting inside Afghanistan. We obviously remain very concerned about enemy sanctuary and support that they receive from outside of the country. However, this is not the focus of our military operations right now, we're very focused on those insurgents and terrorists who try to operate inside Afghanistan and then we work with our diplomatic colleague to work with our neighbors and other nations in the region to reduce the external support and the external sanctuary enjoyed by these enemies".