The head of ISIS terrorist group\u2019s Afghanistan affiliate has been arrested along with 19 other militants, Afghan officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n
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The head of ISIS terrorist group\u2019s Afghanistan affiliate has been arrested along with 19 other militants, Afghan officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n
Abdullah Orakzai, who goes by Aslam Farooqi, was detained by forces from the National Directorate of Security, the country\u2019s main intelligence agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It was unclear where the arrests took place. Farooqi and the others were detained on Friday, NDS spokesman Haris Jebran told Stars and Stripes. Jebran declined to provide further details.<\/p>\n
U.S. airstrikes and raids have targeted the terrorist group\u2019s regional affiliate, known as ISIS-Khorasan Province, since 2016. ISIS had declared the group\u2019s formation early the previous year.<\/p>\n
Last April, Farooqi replaced the group\u2019s former leader, known by the nom de guerre Abu Omar Khorasani, the United Nations said in a report in July. ISIS reportedly demoted Khorasani over \u201cpoor performance\u201d and operational failures in late 2018 in eastern Nangarhar province.<\/p>\n
Farooqi\u2019s arrest is the latest setback for ISIS-K, which saw roughly 300 of its fighters surrender to government forces in the final months of 2019.<\/p>\n
Sustained American airstrikes, security forces operations and fighting between ISIS-K and the Taliban led to the surrenders, the U.S. military said January in a report describing the group\u2019s stronghold in Nangarhar as \u201cdismantled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the group continues to claim high-profile attacks throughout the country, such as when gunmen stormed a Sikh temple in Kabul\u2019s old town on March 25, killing over two dozen people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of ISIS terrorist group\u2019s Afghanistan affiliate has been arrested along with 19 other militants, Afghan officials said Saturday. The head of ISIS terrorist group\u2019s Afghanistan affiliate has been arrested along with 19 other militants, Afghan officials said Saturday. Abdullah Orakzai, who goes by Aslam Farooqi, was detained by forces from the National Directorate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[43,85],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-afghanistan","tag-isis"],"yoast_head":"\n