Afghan security forces take position on a building where the Islamic State militants were hiding after an attack on a jail compound in the city of Jalalabad on Monday.The Islamic State group attacked a prison in eastern Afghanistan holding hundreds of its members, leading to an hours-long battle on Monday that saw the military retake control of the facility even as militants continued to fire on them from a nearby neighborhood.
The fighting killed at least 29 people and wounded 50, authorities said.
Security forces seized the prison on Monday afternoon in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar Province, about 115 kilometers east of Kabul, Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said.
Sporadic gunfire rang out from nearby residential buildings in central Jalalabad, an area of high security near the provincial governor’s office.
The attack highlighted the challenges ahead for Afghanistan, as US and NATO forces begin to withdraw after America struck a peace deal with the Taliban.
As security forces swept through the prison, they found the bodies of two Taliban prisoners apparently killed by the Islamic State group, showing the tensions between the two militant groups battling each other in eastern Afghanistan.
The 29 dead included civilians, prisoners, guards and Afghan security forces, said Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman.
The attack began on Sunday, when an Islamic State suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives up to the prison’s main gate, detonating the bomb. Islamic State militants opened fire on the prison’s guards and poured through the breach.
The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, known as IS in Khorasan Province, later claimed responsibility. The affiliate is headquartered in Nangarhar Province.
The motive of the attack wasn’t immediately clear. However, some of the 1,500 prisoners there escaped during the fighting. Khyogyani said about 1,000 prisoners who earlier escaped had been found by security forces across the city. It wasn’t immediately clear if any prisoners were still at large.
Several hundred prisoners in Jalalabad are believed to be Islamic State members.
The attack came a day after authorities said Afghan special forces killed a senior Islamic State commander near Jalalabad.
While the Islamic State group has seen its so-called caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria eliminated after a years-long campaign, the group has continued fighting in Afghanistan.
The extremists also have battled the Taliban whom the US overthrew following the 2001 American-led invasion after the September 11 attacks in the US.
The Taliban’s political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said his group was not involved in the Jalalabad attack.
A second, crucial round of negotiations between the Taliban and the political leadership in Kabul has yet to start.
The Taliban declared a three-day ceasefire starting last Friday for the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
It wasn’t immediately clear if it would be extended as the US pushes for an early start to intra-Afghan negotiations that have repeatedly been delayed since Washington signed the peace deal with the Taliban.
“We have a ceasefire and are not involved in any of these attacks anywhere in the country,” Shaheen said.
The Taliban also had denied being involved in a suicide bombing in eastern Logar Province late on Thursday. That attack that killed at least nine people and wounded 40.
Afghanistan has seen a recent spike in violence, with most attacks claimed by the local Islamic State group affiliate.
(Agencies)