Media reports say Islamic State militants have captured a giant cave stronghold from the Taliban which was once Osama bin Laden’s hideout in the early 2000s
ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the Islamic State terror organization’s force in Afghanistan, seized the network of caves known as Tora Bora from the Taliban on Wednesday, The New York Times reported, citing local Afghan officials and residents.
Tora Bora, which is located in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, was Osama bin Laden’s hideout until December 2001, when he narrowly escaped a botched US bombing campaign.
ISIS-K turned their sights on Tora Bora after the US hit their previous hideout with the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ (MOAB), Hazrat Ali, a member of the Afghan Parliament, told the Times.
About700-1,000 ISIS militants are thought to be in Afghanistan, and the MOAB strike was thought to have killed about 94 of them.
The Guardian, citing Hazrat Ali, says “hundreds of ISIS militants attacked Taliban militants in Tora Bora,” killing 12 Taliban fighters.
Meanwhile Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman in Nangarhar, told The Guardian that ISIS began their assault on Tora Bora late Tuesday, , and had taken many areas around it. But he contradicted others sources in saying that bin Laden’s old hideout had not yet been captured.
A Taliban spokesman also told the Times that ISIS had not captured Tora Bora, and that fighting was still underway.
According to Reuters, Afghan officials say Islamic State militants have seized cave complexes in Tora Bora, after days of fighting against Taliban who had been based there.
"Those areas around Tora Bora were a Taliban stronghold, but now Daesh militants captured them during fighting," the police commander in the area, Shah Wali, told Reuters, using an Arabic term for Islamic State.
Abu Omar Khorasani, an Islamic State commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters that his fighters had seized Tora Bora and were also battling government troops, who are backed by U.S. ground troops and aircraft.
"We are in Tora Bora but this is not the end," Khorasani said. "The plan is to take more territory from the government and the Taliban."
The fighting has reportedly sent hundreds of families fleeing.
An official with the U.S. military command in Kabul said Islamic State forces are “on the run” and “are attempting to take refuge” in the Tora Bora region, according to Reuters.
