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US Military Takes Out ISIS
ISIS Drone Attack | Photo Credit NY Times
The US military believes they can destroy the Islam State’s Afghanistan affiliate within the next eight months, according to a military spokesperson. The Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has been a target for some time.
In April, the group became a focus when the US dropped the MOAB on their compound near the Nangarhar province. The effort was followed with a midnight raid on the compound where the leader of ISIS-K was staying.
As of now, the military believes these efforts will destroy ISIS-K in 2017.
ISIS Attack | Photo Credit Fox News
Dawn News reports:
“Both the military and analysts acknowledge there is a danger of IS fighters heading to Afghanistan if they are forced out of Iraq and Syria. Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said that while IS should ultimately be defeated in Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s timeline may be overly optimistic.”
“A definitive victory could take “a long time due, partly (due) to the proximity of Pakistan as well as the possible flow of fighters” from the Middle East as the “group loses sanctuaries there,” O’Hanlon told AFP.”
3,000 ISIS Fighters At Peak
ISIS Soldiers | Photo Credit NBC
The Daily Caller reports:
“We have a very good chance of destroying them in 2017, making it very clear that when ISIS fighters are destroyed elsewhere around the globe that this is not the place for you to come to plot your attacks,” said Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.”
“Salvin noted that IS-K had between 2,500 and 3,000 fighters at its peak. Recent losses and desertions have lowered that number to no more than 800. IS-K first established itself in Afghanistan in 2015, primarily in the country’s mountainous eastern regions in the Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.”
