More than a dozen members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group have been killed in operations by Afghan security forces against the extremists in the country’s eastern province of Nangarhar.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Afghan Ministry of Defense announced that the operations were carried out in the Achin and Dih Bala districts of the province, located some 150 kilometers (86 miles) east of the capital, Kabul.
The statement added that 13 Daesh Takfiris were killed during the operations, while seven more sustained injuries.
Daesh militants had killed six police officers, including a district police chief, in the same Afghan province a day earlier.
Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the terrorists attacked the administrative headquarters in Haska Mina district early on Saturday, and shot the policemen dead.
On April 14, Afghan military aircraft carried out an airstrike and killed dozens of Daesh members in Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan. The Afghan army’s public relations directorate said 42 Daesh militants were killed in the raid and a training center was destroyed.
Nangarhar has been witnessing a rise in the number of Daesh terrorists in some of its districts in recent months.
Afghanistan faces a security challenge years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still beset with insecurity.
There are currently some 10,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan despite the end of the US-led combat mission on December 31, 2014. The forces, mainly from the US, are there for what Washington calls a support mission. NATO says the forces focus mainly on counter-terrorism operations and training Afghan soldiers and policemen.