Ariana News Agency-\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThe emergence of an Afghan affiliate of Islamic State emerged in recent years created another enemy for the U.S.-backed government, which has been fighting against the much larger Taliban insurgency since 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Afghan government strongly welcomes the U.S. forces\u2019 operation that led to the death of … Baghdadi,\u201d a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani said in a post on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe death … is the biggest blow to this group and to terrorism,\u201d the spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, said.<\/p>\n
Baghdadi, who had led the jihadist group since 2010, killed himself during a raid by U.S. special forces on his hideout in northwest Syria early on Sunday. His death was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The leadership of Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an old name for the region that covered much of modern-day Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia, had pledged allegiance to Baghdadi but it was unclear what direct operational links the two groups had.<\/p>\n
The Afghan affiliate first appeared in 2014, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where it retains a stronghold.<\/p>\n
It announced its formation in January 2015 and has since made inroads in other areas, particularly the north, sometimes bringing it into conflict with the rival Afghan Taliban.<\/p>\n
It has also carried out bloody attacks on civilian targets in Kabul and other cities, but many Afghan officials doubt some of its claims, and the group remains little understood.<\/p>\n
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, said the militant faction had grown weaker recently, and the death of Baghdadi would be a hard blow for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo doubt, Baghdadi\u2019s death will have a deep impact on Daesh\u2019s activities in Afghanistan,\u201d said Khogyani, referring to IS.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military estimates the strength of ISIS-K at 2,000 fighters. Some Afghan officials put the number higher. But Khogyani said numerous members had been killed in clashes or had surrendered over recent months.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reuters\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Afghanistan welcomed the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as a major blow to terrorism that is expected to weaken the South Asian branch of the Middle Eastern militant group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_mat_hreflang_tags":[],"addvideo":"","video_duration":"","farsit":"","target":"0","top_stories":"0","top":"1"},"categories":[2,7,12,9],"tags":[548,226,31,646],"class_list":["post-4296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-politics","category-security","category-social","tag-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi","tag-afghanistan-war","tag-daesh","tag-is"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":true,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n
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