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DPA
Kabul
At least 39 people - including 10 attackers - were killed in Afghanistan after Islamic State militants attacked a prison in Jalalabad, government officials said on Monday.
More than 50 people were also wounded in the attack in the capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani.
On Sunday the attackers detonated a car bomb then followed up with gunfire, with the raid ending after 23 hours of clashes with security forces, the Defence Ministry said.
Khogyani said that at the time of the attack, there were close to 1,800 prisoners in the jail and that a number of prisoners have disappeared.
Among the prisoners were members of Islamic State, the Taliban, convicted murderers and drug traffickers, the officials said.
Nangarhar Deputy Governor Tamim Arif said the main reason the attackers raided the prison was to free the prisoners.
The country’s chief of staff General Mohammad Yasin Zia was flown in to the province and took leadership of the operation.
The attack occurred the day after Afghan forces announced the death of the intelligence chief of the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, Assadullah Orokzai, in Jalalabad.
A source told dpa that Orokzai was a close aide of the militant group’s leader in Afghanistan - Abdullah Orokzai - who was arrested recently.
A Kabul-based think tank analyst, Thomas Ruttig, doubted the Sunday’s attack was just an act of revenge from Islamic State.
“Such an attack is certainly a long-term plan. The attack also shows that announcements by the Afghan government that it had defeated IS militarily in Afghanistan were premature,” Ruttig added.
Kabul
At least 39 people - including 10 attackers - were killed in Afghanistan after Islamic State militants attacked a prison in Jalalabad, government officials said on Monday.
More than 50 people were also wounded in the attack in the capital of the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Ataullah Khogyani.
On Sunday the attackers detonated a car bomb then followed up with gunfire, with the raid ending after 23 hours of clashes with security forces, the Defence Ministry said.
Khogyani said that at the time of the attack, there were close to 1,800 prisoners in the jail and that a number of prisoners have disappeared.
Among the prisoners were members of Islamic State, the Taliban, convicted murderers and drug traffickers, the officials said.
Nangarhar Deputy Governor Tamim Arif said the main reason the attackers raided the prison was to free the prisoners.
The country’s chief of staff General Mohammad Yasin Zia was flown in to the province and took leadership of the operation.
The attack occurred the day after Afghan forces announced the death of the intelligence chief of the Islamic State’s Afghan branch, Assadullah Orokzai, in Jalalabad.
A source told dpa that Orokzai was a close aide of the militant group’s leader in Afghanistan - Abdullah Orokzai - who was arrested recently.
A Kabul-based think tank analyst, Thomas Ruttig, doubted the Sunday’s attack was just an act of revenge from Islamic State.
“Such an attack is certainly a long-term plan. The attack also shows that announcements by the Afghan government that it had defeated IS militarily in Afghanistan were premature,” Ruttig added.
