ISIS taxi drivers caught ferrying guns and fighters in Afghanistan

Afghan special forces yesterday arrested four ISIS terrorists who were posing as taxi drivers to take fighters and weapons in and out of the capital, Kabul.

“They were an important asset to Daesh [ISIS] and provided logistic support to the ISIS fighters in Kabul,” an official inside Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security told The National.

Those arrested were involved in several high-profile attacks and “were also involved with recruiting new members in Kabul”, the official said.

They were captured at the end of a four-day operation in the Qargha district on the outskirts of Kabul city.

The four ISIS suspects were identified as Shafiullah, Muhammad Rahim, Mansur Al Din and Javid, and are believed to be from the Kabul and Laghman provinces.

During the arrests, officers recovered 10 kilograms of explosives, a suicide vest and terrorist training manuals, including eight volumes on making bombs.

Officers also uncovered a cache of military-grade weaponry including hand grenades, nine grenade launchers and 35 remote-control detantors.

The terrorist group’s activities in Afghanistan have increased considerably over the past 12 months, adding to the country’s deteriorating security situation.

The latest report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documenting civilian casualties in the first half of this year showed a substantial increase in casualties caused by ISIS, especially in Kabul and Nangarhar provinces.

About 52 per cent of civilian casualties caused by suicide attacks in Kabul were linked to ISIS. The terrorist group claimed 15 attacks this year, which resulted in almost 600 civilian casualties.

The UN figures do not include the recent deadly classroom bombing in the Afghan capital that took the lives of 63 people and injured more than 100. Most of these casualties were students who were preparing to sit their university entrance exams.

These latest arrests in Kabul are the second major breakthrough for the country’s overstretched security forces in the past week.

The leader of the local ISIS Khorasan faction, Saad Arhabi, was killed in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Saturday, Afghan and Nato officials confirmed to