Defeated by Taliban, ISIS fighters flee to surrender to government

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — More than 200 Islamic State fighters and their two top commanders surrendered to the Afghan government on Wednesday to avoid capture by Taliban insurgents, after a two-day battle that was a decisive victory for the Taliban, participants on all sides confirmed.

One of the Islamic State commanders, Mufti Nemat, was reached by cellphone after his surrender, and he confirmed that he and 200 to 250 of his fighters had turned themselves in to the government after the battle in northern Afghanistan, in which 40 of his insurgents had been killed by the Taliban.

The spokesman for Afghanistan’s commando forces, Maj. Ahmad Jawid Salim, said in a post on his Facebook page that the surrenders marked the end of the Islamic State group in northern Afghanistan.

“After the surrender of more than 200 Daeshis in Darzab District last night, the Daeshis have been wiped out of the north,” he said, using an alternative name for Islamic State members.

Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, who was also reached by cellphone, said that after the attack on the Islamic State group, the Taliban had taken 128 fighters prisoner, with the rest fleeing to government positions in the area. “There will be investigations, and our military courts will decide on their fates,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”

The Taliban and the Islamic State are bitter enemies in Afghanistan, attacking each other wherever they can. The Islamic State’s main concentration is in the south of Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan, but they had another major group in the northern province of Jowzjan, particularly in Darzab, the district that was Nemat’s stronghold.

Nemat declined to give details of the fight against the Taliban or to reveal why he had decided to surrender. He was critical of the government, however, saying that the Afghan National Army had promised to send helicopters to evacuate him and his followers, who included 30 women.

“It was an emergency situation,” he said. “We were promised choppers around 9 p.m. last night to evacuate us, but unfortunately nothing came.”

Instead, the Islamic State fighters fled on foot to government lines, but more could have escaped the Taliban pursuit, Nemat said.

In addition to Nemat, who is also known as Mufti Nematullah Qaweem, the other Islamic State military commander, Maulavi Habib ulRahman, surrendered to the Afghan government forces, according to Abdul Hafiz Khashi, the deputy police chief of Jowzjan province. The two leaders are brothers-in-law.