30 civilians abducted and killed by militants

Authorities in Afghanistan believe the attacks were retaliation for the killing of an extremist commander

KABUL // Militants abducted and killed about 30 civilians, including children, in central Afghanistan, raising concerns about ISIL’s presence expanding beyond its stronghold.

The deaths occurred on Tuesday north of Firoz Koh, the capital of Ghor province.

The government described it as a revenge attack after an ISIL commander was killed.

ISIL, which is fighting to control territory across Syria and Iraq, has a presence in Afghanistan, but it has not officially claimed responsibility for the murders.

“Our security forces, with the help of locals, conducted an operation and killed a Daesh commander yesterday. Daesh fighters in return abducted around 30 villagers, mostly shepherds,” Ghor governor Nasir Khazeh said. “Their dead bodies were found this ( yesterday) morning.” Abdul Hameed Nateqi, a Ghor provincial council member, said the assailants were self-proclaimed supporters of ISIL.

ISIL fighters have been trying to expand their presence in Afghanistan, winning sympathisers, recruiting followers and challenging the Taliban on their own turf, primarily in the country’s east.

In March, the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani announced that ISIL had been defeated after local security forces claimed victory in a months-long operation against the group.

But ISIL militants have continued to launch deadly strikes across the country. The Afghan government is in the middle of an operation backed by Nato air strikes against ISIL in Nangarhar province.

Nato said the group’s influence was waning as it steadily lost territory, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in Nangarhar from nine in January.

“Right now, we see ISIL very focused on trying to establish their caliphate inside Afghanistan,” John Nicholson, the most senior US and Nato commander in the country, said on Sunday.

“Of course, with our Afghan partners, we have been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on ISIL.”

In July, ISIL claimed responsibility for two explosions in Kabul, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 400 others in crowds of Shiite Hazaras.

The bombings were the deadliest in Kabul since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the Ghor killings.

The group, which has stepped up nationwide assaults on the western-backed government, is not generally known to launch attacks directly targeting civilians. However, Abdul Hai Khateby, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said he was convinced the militants behind the attacks and abductions were a renegade Taliban group that had sworn allegiance last year to Afghanistan’s ISIL affiliate.

“The group is former Taliban who just a year ago announced their support to their Islamic State group and changed their white flag to black,” Mr Khateby said in Ghor.

The civilians who were abducted were all poor people from the area, mainly villagers and shepherds, and there were even children among those taken, he said.

He said that the victims’ families and relatives, along with other residents of Ghor, held a protest rally near the governor’s office in Firoz Koh yesterday. The demonstrators denounced the government, which they said cannot protect the population from militant violence.

“The locals were so angry and they were throwing stones toward the governor’s building,” he said.

No one was hurt in the protest, which later ended with the help of tribal leaders who mediated between the crowd and the authorities.

Mr Ghani’s office strongly condemned the attack in Ghor, saying that “once again, the enemies of the Afghan people carried out another attack on civilians and killed innocent people”.

Amnesty International denounced the Ghor killings as a “horrendous crime”.

“The victims and their families deserve justice,” Amnesty said, urging Kabul to bring the perpetrators to justice.

‘ Right now, we see ISIL very focused on trying to establish their caliphate inside Afghanistan John Nicholson US and Nato commander in Afghanistan