US says it will intensify fight against IS in Afghanistan

BRUSSELS — The U.S. will intensify combat against the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan during the Kabul government’s temporary halt to attacks on the Taliban, senior U.S. officials said Friday.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said this could, for example, allow the U.S. to partially shift the focus of aerial surveillance from the Taliban to IS fighters as well as al-qaida extremists, who remain a threat 17 years after the U.S. invaded.

Mattis spoke to reporters during a break in a NATO defense ministers meeting, which included a discussion of progress and problems in Afghanistan. The ministers also discussed more broadly the international campaign against IS, which has focused since 2014 on eliminating the group’s so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

In remarks to ministers at the start of the meeting, Mattis argued for continuing military pressure on IS even after the fighting in Syria is over. He did not mention that President Donald Trump has said he wants the U.S. to exit Syria as soon as it can, perhaps within a matter of months.

“As operations ultimately draw to a close, we want to avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited” by IS and other extremists, he said. “Our fight is not over,” he added. “We must deal ISIS an enduring, not just a territorial, defeat.”

Later he said leaving Syria before a U.n.-led peace process was underway “would be a strategic blunder.”

Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, said the fight against IS in the eastern Nangarhar province had already been intensifying this year and would be further stepped up during the Afghan cease-fire against the Taliban, which does not apply to other opposition groups. Nicholson spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the NATO meeting.