Prison in eastern Afghanistan under ferocious attack by ISIS fighters

By Jay Jackson, Tampa Star
04 Aug 2020, 03:03 GMT+10

An attack on a prison in eastern Afghanistan by ISIS fighters which began on Sunday has continued into Monday.
The prison, which is said to hold several hundred ISIS members among its 1,500-inmates, was stormed on Sunday by fighters.
The prison is in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, located about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Kabul.

KABUL, Afghanistan - An attack on a prison in eastern Afghanistan by ISIS fighters which began on Sunday has continued into Monday.

The prison, which is said to hold several hundred ISIS members among its 1,500-inmates, was stormed on Sunday by fighters. A suicide bomber started the attack when he drove an explosive laden vehicle into the prison entrance.

The prison is in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, located about 115 kilometers (70 miles) east of Kabul.

More than twenty people have been killed so far, and more than double that number have been injured.

Three ISIS fighters are believed to be among the dead which, according to Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, included prisoners, civilians, prison guards and Afghan security personnel.

'ISIL - Khorasan Province,' an ISIS branch, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Taliban's political spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, told The Associated Press his group was not involved in the Jalalabad attack. The U.S. struck a peace deal with the Taliban in February. A second, crucial round of negotiations between the Taliban and the political leadership in Kabul has yet to start. Still, Washington and NATO already have begun withdrawing troops in line with the deal.

"We have a cease-fire and are not involved in any of these attacks anywhere in the country," Shaheen told AP.

(Photo credit: AP).

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