Ariana News Agency-\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n U.S. officials confirmed Thursday that Islamic State-Khorasan, as the terror group’s Afghan affiliate is called, collapsed in the country’s eastern Nangarhar province following months of fighting.<\/p>\n “Afghan government and coalition operations against the group, along with the Taliban’s campaign \u2026 led to ISIS-Khorasan’s collapse in Nangarhar and the surrender of hundreds of fighters to Afghan forces,” a senior counterterrorism official told VOA, using an acronym for the group.<\/p>\n “Surrendered [Islamic State] fighters said they were told to leave Nangarhar for Kunar [province], where we assess the group still maintains a presence, as well as the northern provinces of Afghanistan,” the official added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The U.S. assessment contrasted with some more optimistic pronouncements from Afghan officials, who touted the victory in Nangarhar as conclusive.<\/p>\n “No one believed one year ago that we would stand up and remain in Nangarhar, and thank God that today we have obliterated Daesh,” President Ashraf Ghani said Tuesday during a speech in Jalalabad, using an Arabic acronym for IS.<\/p>\n “It’s not possible that they once again equip themselves in other areas of Afghanistan and threaten other parts of the country,” Nangarhar Governor Shah Mahmoud Miakhel added.<\/p>\n Just two days earlier, Taliban officials touted their own success against the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, calling the group’s defeat in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces the result of a “decisive and large-scale” campaign that began in September.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Over the course of the last five years, they were systematically uprooted,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement Sunday, adding the Taliban had “rescued the oppressed people of Nangarhar from this scourge.”<\/p>\n Both the Taliban and Afghan government officials said almost 600 IS fighters had surrendered, along with women and children.<\/p>\n Still, U.S. officials said the threat from IS-Khorasan, which is thought to have between 4,000 and 5,000 fighters across Afghanistan, was far from over.<\/p>\n The movement of the surrendered fighters to Kunar province and northern provinces of Afghanistan “suggests ISIS-Khorasan is still active in the country despite losing territory in Nangarhar,” the senior U.S. counterterrorism official said.<\/p>\n The U.S. Defense Department declined to discuss the statements by Afghan officials regarding the status of IS-Khorasan but said the effort to defeat the terror group would go on.<\/p>\n U.S. Forces-Afghanistan “will continue our work with the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to ensure that ISIS in Afghanistan is destroyed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Campbell told VOA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the Islamic State’s most feared affiliates has suffered a significant setback, though U.S. officials caution reports that the terror group was “obliterated” are overblown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4430,"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":[2,12,9],"tags":[39,653],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-security","category-social","tag-afghanistan","tag-islamic-state"],"acf":{"myctype":"change","target":false,"top_stories":false,"top":true,"farsit":""},"yoast_head":"\n\nAfghans more optimistic<\/strong><\/h2>\n
‘Systematically uprooted’<\/h2>\n