Will Taliban help Afghan gov’t defeat ISIS?

The Islamic State, aka Daesh, which lost its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, is losing more ground in Afghanistan as it struggles against Taliban.

The Islamic State’s main stronghold in eastern Afghanistan
collapsed in recent weeks, according to US and Afghan officials, following
years of concerted military offensives from US and Afghan forces and, more
recently, the Taliban.
President Ashraf Ghani
recently claimed that the Islamic State, often known as ISIS, had been “obliterated”
in Nangarhar Province, the group’s haven in the east.
Gen. Austin S. Miller,
the commander of all American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the group’s
loss of the terrain it stubbornly held for few years would severely restrict
their recruitment and planning.

General Miller’s
reluctance to affirm any type of major victory over the offshoot is indicative
of the broader inroads Islamic State cells have made in Afghanistan — and of a
long history of militant groups in Afghanistan bouncing back after seemingly
unsustainable losses.

estimated 3,000 earlier
this year.
The Islamic State’s
presence in Afghanistan has been cited by military officials and lawmakers as
one of the reasons to keep US troops in Afghanistan following any peace
settlement with the Taliban.
The US State Department
said on Dec. 4 that US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad would visit Qatar to hold
talks with Taliban after his visit to Afghanistan.