Taliban storm Islamic State base

Rival groups have clashed more frequently since August

KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters raided a hideout of the Islamic State group north of the Afghan capital Friday, killing or arresting an unspecified number of militants, a Taliban spokesman said.

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, there has been an increase in attacks by Islamic State militants targeting Taliban members. The Taliban and the Islamic State are enemies, and the attacks have raised the specter of a wider conflict between the longtime rivals.

In late August, an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted U.S. evacuation efforts outside Kabul international airport in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years. The blast killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said Friday’s raid took place in the city of Charikar in Parwan province. He did not provide more details, and his statement could not be independently verified.

The raid followed an arrest by the Taliban of two Islamic State members linked to a roadside bombing that targeted their vehicle in the city, wounding four fighters, Karimi said. The two were questioned, and the information they provided helped the Taliban identify the hideout, he added.

The Islamic State is based largely in eastern Nangarhar province, but the group has ramped up attacks across Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. Several Taliban fighters have been killed in Islamic State attacks in the provincial capital of Jalalabad. In response, the Taliban have carried out crackdowns in Nangarhar.

Separately, Pakistan wants the European Union to revise its plan to step up human-rights monitoring under the new Taliban leadership in Afghanistan, in part by taking into account socioeconomic concerns in a country hoping to emerge from decades of war and instability.

Islamabad says “further improvements” to a resolution at the U.N.’s top human-rights body are needed, including concrete pledges of assistance for the war-wracked country without using human rights as the sole criteria. Pakistan is arguably the Taliban’s closest state interlocutor, with historic ties and ostensible influence with the religious militia.

The European bloc is leading an effort backed by more than 40 countries at the Human Rights Council to pass a resolution next week that would, among other things, name a special rapporteur on Afghanistan to help the country uphold its international commitments on human rights and offer support to advocacy groups — much of whose work has been disrupted under the new leadership.

The Europeans want consensus for the resolution at the council, which counts Pakistan among its 47 member countries. The rapporteur would benefit from expertise in legal affairs, torture and degrading punishment, the right to education, and the rights of women, girls and minorities, according to the resolution.

Pakistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation led a unanimous resolution at the council during a special session in August — before the full departure of international forces — that expressed concerns about the rights situation in Afghanistan, and called for the U.N. human rights chief to monitor the situation, with a written report planned for March. Some advocacy groups said it didn’t go far enough.

In comments late Thursday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Asim Iftikhar said the EU draft resolution “needs further improvements” and that delegations were working closely on it. He said Pakistan believes the EU initiative “does not add any value to the [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] resolution adopted just a month ago with agreement of all council members.”

He also said the EU proposal “seeks to pursue [human-rights] concerns in isolation from security, safety, conflict, governance, and economic dimensions. The EU initiative is geared towards civil and political rights only, without any consideration of economic and social rights.

Iftikhar added: “We have also advised them to include some indication/element of assistance” for Afghanistan, without elaborating.