Taliban rejects ISIS claims over Tora Bora
AMIR SHAH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KABUL — Islamic State says it has captured Tora Bora, a mountain hideout in Afghanistan once used by Osama bin Laden, but the Taliban on Thursday dismissed the claim, saying they were still in control of the cave complex.
The Tora Bora mountains hide a warren of caves in which bin Laden and other al-Qaida militants hid from U.S.-led coalition forces in 2001 after the Taliban fled Kabul.
According to testimony from alQaida captives in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, bin Laden fled from Tora Bora to Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province before crossing the border into Pakistan. He was killed in a 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a telephone interview that Taliban fighters drove Islamic State from the parts of Tora Bora that it had seized, adding that more than 30 Islamic State militants were killed in the fighting. He said a U.S. airstrike on the Taliban killed 11 of its fighters, helping the Islamic State militants.
Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate and the larger and more wellestablished Taliban are both committed to overthrowing the U.S.backed government, but they are bitterly divided over leadership, ideology and tactics, and have fought often.
Afghan officials said fighting between Islamic State and the Taliban in Tora Bora began on Tuesday. They could not confirm who was in control of the area.
Defence Ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri would not say whether Islamic State was in complete control of Tora Bora, but he said Afghan forces killed five militants in the eastern Nangarhar province, pushing them out of the Chapahar district. Waziri said Afghan forces will continue their offensive toward Tora Bora with NATO air support.
The province, which borders Pakistan, is the main foothold of the Islamic State affiliate, which has emerged over the past two years and is loyal to the central leadership in Iraq and Syria.
While the U.S. estimates there are about 800 Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, mostly restricted to Nangarhar, other estimates say their ranks include thousands of battle-hardened Uzbek militants.