Taliban launches operation against Islamic State in southern Afghanistan

The Taliban says at least four Islamic State operatives and two civilians were killed in a crackdown on the group’s hideouts in southern Afghanistan after a recent increase in bloody attacks.

The operation against Islamic State-Khorasan — the local chapter of the jihadist group — began around midnight in at least four districts of Kandahar province and continued through Monday morning, Taliban provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Mohammadi tells AFP.

“So far, four Daesh (IS) fighters have been killed and 10 arrested… one of them blew himself up inside a house,” he says. A Taliban official later tweets that three IS operatives were killed and two civilians “martyred” in the operation. There was no explanation for the disparity.

Local media quotes a Taliban official as saying there had also been a blast in a western suburb of Kabul this morning with no casualties.