According to the group's spokesman, the Taliban captured four Islamic State members and seized their documents and weapons north of Kabul on Wednesday.
Special unit soldiers carried out the operation in the Pashai area of Pagham district in Kabul province, according to Zabihullah Mujahid. He didn't go into any further detail.
The arrests come as the Taliban leadership, which took control of the country after seizing the capital on Aug. 15, battles a growing security threat from an IS affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan. Since the Taliban secured authority following the US withdrawal, the terrorist group has increased its attacks. It has claimed responsibility for recent strikes in the city, including two deadly explosions.
IS said that an explosive device was used to strike a vehicle carrying Taliban members in District 1 of Kunar province, northeast of the city, on Tuesday night, killing and wounding those on board. According to the report, a Taliban reinforcement patrol went to the scene to assist, but IS terrorists engaged them in combat, killing and wounded "many."
After being damaged by a significant US bombing campaign conducted against them in the eastern part of the country in 2019, IS re-emerged in Afghanistan in 2020. ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed five civilians in Kabul's Eid Gah Mosque on Sunday. It also claimed responsibility for the devastating blast outside the Kabul airport on Aug. 26 that killed more than 169 Afghans and 13 US military personnel.
Since then, the Taliban has carried out numerous raids to eliminate IS cells.
Separately, two witnesses and a hospital official said unknown gunmen opened fire on a Taliban patrol in a vegetable market in the northeastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday morning, killing two Taliban militants and wounding three civilians. The hospital got two dead bodies and two wounded guys, according to the official.
Because of the delicate nature of the matter, they talked on the condition of anonymity.
Since the takeover, Jalalabad has been a flashpoint in the antagonism between the Taliban and the Islamic State, with multiple attacks.
