by Faridullah Hussainkhail
Gen. John W. Nicholson, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan in an interview with NBC news on Sunday said that Daesh militants are trying to establish a caliphate inside Afghanistan territory.
"Right now we see them very focused on trying to establish their caliphate, the Khorasan caliphate, inside Afghanistan," said Nicholson.
According to Nicholson the U.S. has seen foreign fighters, mostly Uzbeks from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and many Pakistani Taliban who the joined Islamic State Khorasan moving into Afghanistan to fight.
Nicholson said that Daesh is completely rejected by the Afghan people and it is in complete contradiction to Afghan culture.
"With our Afghan partners, we've been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on them to include killing their leaders," he said.
Earlier Resolute Support said that Daesh was mainly present in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and their numbers were around 1,000 fighters.
Nicholson also raised concern over the border region with Pakistan where insurgents are able to move across on both sides of the border which is mostly Pakistani Taliban, and Daesh militants.
Read the full story at TOLOnews