Afghan intelligence agency dismantles large IS cell

Afghanistan has successfully dismantled a large Islamic State terror organization cell operating here, the country's intelligence agency said on Wednesday.

According to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the network was made up of 13 militants of various nationalities who were planning attacks in the Afghan capital.

The network had a plan to carry out a series of major terrorist attacks and the cell played an active role in moving suicide bombers to Kabul and providing resources to them, Efe news quoted the NDS as saying.

A member of the NDS said it was "the first ever big IS group to be detained in Kabul by the agency" since the terror outfit's inception in the country.

The IS sprung up in Afghanistan in 2015 and formed its main bastion in the province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan and plays an important role in bilateral communication.

The Afghan Army announced on Tuesday that at least 86 IS members, including several commanders, had been killed and 38 others injured in two operations in the north and east of the country.

Although the authorities have repeatedly claimed that the terrorist group's presence has been restricted to a few remote areas, the IS has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks the country has seen, including the latest one on Sunday in Nangarhar, where a bombing at the funeral of a local politician killed 18.

Last year, the Afghan capital was the scene of several major attacks claimed by the IS, the bloodiest of which since the US invasion and fall of the Taliban regime in 2003 came in May, killing 150 people and wounding over 300 in Kabul's diplomatic quarter.

--IANS

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