Coalition aircraft struck Islamic State’s new radio station in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar late on Monday, part of Nato’s escalating campaign to stop the ultra-radical Islamist movement taking root in the country.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, said the overnight raid also involved Afghan ground forces and destroyed an Islamic State broadcaster in Achin district, killing 29 militants including eight working on the radio and online operation.
The emergence of fighters loyal to Islamic State has introduced a dangerous new element to Afghanistan’s long-running civil conflict, with the group violently challenging the much larger Afghan Taliban movement in pockets of the country. Nato’s Resolute Support mission in Kabul, which is led by the US military, confirmed that American forces carried out two counter-terrorism air strikes in Achin district, but declined to provide further details.
Whether the raid succeeds in silencing the transmissions, which have recently increased from an hour a day to 90 minutes, and are now broadcast in Dari as well as the Pashto language, remains to be seen.
But it reflects intensifying efforts by US forces in the fight against Islamic State, known widely by its derogative Arabic name Daesh, since a special order gave US forces broader authority to strike at IS fighters.
“We have increased the pressure, the US has increased the pressure against Daesh in the past few weeks,” said Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner, deputy chief of staff for communications and Nato’s top spokesman in Afghanistan.
US officials generally provide only bare details of counterterrorism operations, but the military has confirmed a series of drone strikes in Nangarhar over recent weeks. According to the Afghan interior ministry, Afghan and international forces have conducted nearly 20 joint operations against Islamic State in Nangarhar over the past month. “We use airpower of our own and of international forces, which is crucial in defeating Daesh,” said Nangarhar police chief Fazel Ahmad Sherzad.