Kabul: The Taliban reported on Thursday that during overnight raids in Kabul and two other provinces, they had killed 11 Daesh militants and taken seven into custody.
An operation aimed at "a dangerous and significant network of Daesh" that was responsible for recent high-profile attacks in Kabul, according to the chief spokesman of the Taliban administration, Zabihullah Mujahid, was what caused explosions to be heard in the Afghan capital on Wednesday evening.
The militants "organised and carried out attacks on Langan Hotel, the airport, and the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, and were still planning attacks on some other important places," according to Mujahid in a statement.
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Recent weeks have seen the Islamic State Khorasan Province, also known as ISIS-K, claim responsibility for the Dec. 2 attack on the Pakistani embassy, which Islamabad officials said was an attempt to assassinate the nation's top envoy in Afghanistan.
On December 11, gunmen from Daesh stormed a hotel in the heart of Kabul that caters to Chinese businessmen. The attackers were killed during the hour-long attack, and another 21 people, including two foreigners, were hurt.
Taliban security forces suffered numerous casualties on January 2 as a result of an explosion outside the military airport in Kabul that was claimed by Daesh.
The militants were the focus of the operations on Wednesday night in two Kabul neighbourhoods, one location in Zaranj, the capital of the Nimroz province in the southwest, and in Nangarhar province in the east.
Eight Daesh members, including foreign nationals, were killed and seven were captured alive in Kabul and Nimroz, according to Mujahid, who also noted that numerous weapons and explosives were found at the scene.
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The spokesman added that three militants, including a Daesh leader by the name of Musa, were killed during the operation in Nangahar in a tweet that was published hours after his initial statement.
Requests for comment regarding whether Wednesday's raids were a brand-new operation to combat the Daesh threat in the nation were not answered by representatives of the Ministry of Interior.
Arab News quoted Salam University's Hamza Momen Hakimi as saying that they were "counterattacks and operations by the Taliban forces to control these attacks."
In the wake of the US and other international organisations placing it under sanctions when the Taliban took control in August 2021, a rise in Deash attacks has been seen as the group's attempts to further destabilise the country and undermine its already battered economy.
The growing string of ISIS attacks demonstrates this organization's growing operational power, which appears to be impossible without outside assistance and support, according to Hakimi.
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"These operations and these attacks are targeting the stability and peace in Afghanistan," the statement reads. "Whether it's on civilians, like in mosques and educational facilities, or on political and heavily guarded places like the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and other places that they have targeted in the past few months."