The operation in Deh Bala, on the border with Pakistan, began at the end of April and was largely complete in early June.
About
600 American Green Berets and three Afghan commando companies were
involved, according to Military.com, with no casualties for the
allies.
'This was one of the main
green zones that did two things. One, it provided money, finance,
logistics to ISIS and we've taken that away from them,' Lt. Col. Josh
Thiel, from the U.S. First Special Forces Group, said.
'Additionally, ISIS was using this as a site to prepare and move high-profile attacks on Kabul and Jalalabad.'
Officials said soldiers found booby traps and the bodies of two beheaded women as they cleared the area of terrorists.
The
operation, involving three companies of Afghan commandos supported by
U.S. air strikes and American Special Forces teams, began with troops
arriving by helicopter and setting up an operations base near the
village of Gargari, where the ISIS fighters were trying to establish a
local capital.
Several days of heavy
fighting ended in early June with 167 Islamic State fighters killed and
large quantities of equipment captured.
The
fight against ISIS and other militant groups including Al Qaeda is at
the heart of the U.S. counterterrorism mission being conducted alongside
the NATO-led Resolute Support operation that trains and advises Afghan
security forces.
Militants
loyal to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the movement's local
affiliate, first started appearing in Nangarhar around four years ago.
Since
then, the movement has gained a reputation for brutality extreme even
by the standards of the Afghan conflict, making a trademark of
executions by beheading or explosion.
The
fighters in Deh Bala, next to Achin district where the U.S. military
dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb last year, were funding themselves
by illegal logging and talc mining, as well as exploiting local
villagers.
However, a clear link
between fighters in places like Gargari, a mudbrick village down the
road from Deh Bala's district capital, and the militants behind a series
of sophisticated suicide attacks in Kabul or Jalalabad is elusive.
'The network is very fungible...,' said Brigadier General John Brennan, Resolute Support commander in eastern Afghanistan.
'I
wouldn't say the actual suicide bombers came from Deh Bala, but
facilitation runs all along the border and part of it used to come
through here.'
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