An Afghan soldier during an attack by Islamic State militants in Nangarhar Province in May. In expelling the Taliban from Tora Bora, the extremists gain an easily defended base, an Afghan official said.CreditGhulamullah Habibi/European Pressphoto Agency
KABUL, Afghanistan — Tora Bora, the mountain redoubt that was once Osama bin Laden’s fortress, fell to the Islamic State early Wednesday, handing the extremists a significant strategic and symbolic victory, according to Afghan officials and local elders and residents.
Taliban fighters who had previously controlled the extensive cave and tunnel complex fled overnight after a determined, weeklong assault by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, according to villagers fleeing the area on Wednesday.
A local Afghan police official confirmed that the fortress had fallen. “ISIS has captured Tora Bora and areas around it,” he said. “The tribal elders are here in my office. They all escaped the area last night.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban in that area, denied that Tora Bora had fallen to their rival insurgents. “Fighting is underway in the Tora Bora area between ISIS and our mujahedeen,” Mr. Mujahid said via the Viber messaging service. “It is the front line between our mujahedeen and ISIS. No one has advanced in the area.”
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He accused the United States of carrying out airstrikes in support of the Islamic State, but local officials and residents denied hearing any.
Residents said the Taliban had fled. “The Taliban escaped from the area last night and left us to ISIS with our women and children,” said Juma Gul, a tribal elder from the Suleymankhel Valley, close to Tora Bora, who said he was among hundreds of families who fled the area after the Islamic State took over. “There was no resistance by the Taliban against ISIS, and local tribes had no way to fight them anymore, so we just escaped.”
Hazrat Ali, a member of Parliament and a prominent warlord from the area who helped the Americans capture Tora Bora from Al Qaeda in 2001, said that the offensive was prompted by the American decision to drop the so-called mother of all bombs on an Islamic State network of tunnels in Achin District in April. The 20,000-pound bomb was thought to be the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed.
The Islamic State then decided to shift its refuge to the Tora Bora caves and tunnels, Mr. Ali said. “Some 1,000 ISIS militants were gathered close to Tora Bora, to capture the area,” Mr. Ali said. “I informed government forces to target them, and I told them they are trying to capture Tora Bora, but they did not pay attention.”
The militants now have not only an easily defended base at Tora Bora, Mr. Ali said, but also access to many other parts of Nangarhar Province through the Spin Ghar mountains along the Pakistan border, where Tora Bora sits. “ISIS has a stronghold and will capture these areas one after another,” he said.
Mr. Ali has extensive experience fighting against Al Qaeda in the area but has also been accused of having helped bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in December 2001, reportedly betraying his American and Afghan allies as they closed in on the Qaeda leadership.
Source: New York Times
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