Joint Taliban-ISIS Attack Kills Dozens, Afghan Officials Say<br />6, 2017<br />KABUL, Afghanistan — Dozens of civilians and militia forces were killed in northern Afghanistan in what officials on Sunday<br />described as an attack by Taliban fighters teamed up with a commander claiming allegiance to the Islamic State.<br />Several local officials say the Taliban joined forces with Sher Mohammed Ghazanfar, a local<br />commander claiming allegiance to the Islamic State, to overrun the Mirza Olang area.<br />Haji Ghulam Mehdawi said that This was a massacre — they executed 24 people at once, then they killed a woman<br />and her husband near the mill, four people inside the mosque,<br />Aminyar said that It was a joint Daesh and Taliban operation,<br />Mr. Aminyar said 18 of the people killed had been members of the Afghan Local Police,<br />a government militia, and other local militias on the government payroll.<br />" "Despite several demands for air support and the special forces," he said, "the demands were ignored by central government.<br />that The Taliban were led by Mullah Nader and Daesh was led by Sher Mohammed Ghazanfar.<br />Intelligence and security officials have expressed uncertainty over whether what operates as the Islamic State in parts of Afghanistan is really tied to the group’s headquarters in Syria<br />and Iraq at all, or if it is just the Taliban and other militant groups with a new identity.
