BRUSSELS: The United States intends to step up military operations against IS in eastern Afghanistan during a temporary ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban, the top US general in Afghanistan said on Friday. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday announced the first unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban, coinciding with the end of the Muslim fasting month. But that excludes other militant groups such as IS.
The group has developed a stronghold in Nangarhar, on the porous eastern border with Pakistan, and become some of the country’s most dangerous militants since they appeared around the start of 2015.
“(Operations against ISIS) will continue, in fact will be even intensified during this period of ceasefire as we focus on ISIS,” US Army General John Nicholson, commander of US and international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters.
Nicholson said the ceasefire could free resources for operations against IS, but some would remain to monitor the Taliban and for force protection.
“We’re going to leave resources devoted to protecting our forces and watching the enemy, even those that participate in the ceasefire, as well as intensifying the pressure on ISIS,” Nicholson said on the sidelines of a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels. Afghan commandos, supported by US Special forces and American and Afghan air power, have been carrying out an operation against the militants in Nangarhar.
The exact number of IS fighters is difficult to calculate because they frequently switch allegiances, but the US military estimates that there are about 2,000 fighters.
The ceasefire announcement provides a potential moment of cautious optimism in the nearly 17-year-old conflict that has been defined by endemic government corruption, weak security forces and militants that still control parts of the country.
The decision came after a meeting of Islamic clerics this week declared a fatwa, or ruling, against suicide bombings. One such bombing, claimed by IS, killed 14 people at the entrance to the clerics’ peace tent in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.
Nicholson said the ceasefire was “significant” because it was the first of its kind. The Taliban has not yet reacted to the announcement.
“I don’t know what the Taliban will do,” Nicholson acknowledged.
— Reuters
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