ISIS militants who killed more than two dozen civilian hostages in western Afghanistan on Tuesday were described as former Taliban fighters.
At least 23 civilians were killed in Ghor Province, where The New York Times reported government officials as saying a former Taliban unit of 150 followers was responsible for the killings.
“Our security forces with the help of locals conducted an operation and killed a Daesh (ISIS) commander yesterday. Daesh fighters in return abducted around 30 villagers, mostly shepherds…Their dead bodies were found by local people this morning,” Ghor Governor Nasir Khazeh told Agency France-Presse.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid took to Twitter to disassociate his group from the killings, saying they had “nothing to do with the mujahideen” – a term used for Taliban fighters, The Times noted.
Ghor's police chief, Mustafa Mohseni, said the incident took place just outside the province capital. He said the insurgents captured civilians from the area before executing them on Tuesday.
The militants had attacked the outer parts of the capital, but were forced to retreat when they came in contact with fighters from the National Directorate of Security.
“It was a retaliatory act brutally carried out by those so-called Daeshis,” said Sayed Nader Shah Bahr, a member of Parliament from Ghor.
The killings raised international eyebrows about the growing presence of ISIS in Afghanistan, according to International Business Times, considering the Islamic militants already control territory across Syria and Iraq.
Despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declaring that ISIS had been defeated back in March, the terrorist group continues to make its presence known in the country.
“Right now we see them (ISIS) very focused on trying to establish their caliphate…inside Afghanistan…Of course with our Afghan partners we have been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on them,” John Nicholson, top U.S. and NATO commander, told reporters over the weekend.
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