One of the Islamic State commanders, Mufti Nemat, was reached by cellphone after his surrender, and he confirmed that he and 200 to 250 of his fighters had turned themselves in to the government after the battle in northern Afghanistan, in which 40 of his insurgents had been killed by the Taliban. “It was a dark night, a pell-mell situation,” he said. “For two to three nights, we have been unable to sleep; we are very exhausted.” The spokesman for Afghanistan’s commando forces, Maj. Ahmad Jawid Salim, said in a post on his Facebook page that the surrenders marked the end of the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan. “After the surrender of more than 200 Daeshis in Darzab District last night, the Daeshis have been wiped out of the north,” he said, using an alternative name for Islamic State members.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, who was also reached by cellphone, said that after the attack on the Islamic State group, the Taliban had taken 128 fighters prisoner, with the rest fleeing to government positions in the area. “There will be investigations, and our military courts will decide on their fates,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.” The Taliban and the Islamic State are bitter enemies in Afghanistan, attacking each other wherever they can. The Islamic State’s main concentration is in the south of Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, but they had another major group in the northern province of Jowzjan, particularly in Darzab, the district that was Mr. Nemat’s stronghold.
An Islamic State fighter, second from right, speaking to a journalist after surrendering in Jowzjan Province, in northern Afghanistan, on Wednesday.
Mr. Nemat refused to give details of the fight against the Taliban or to reveal why he had decided to surrender. He was critical of the government, however, saying that the Afghan National Army had promised to send helicopters to evacuate him and his followers, who included 30 women. “It was an emergency situation,” he said. “We were promised choppers around 9 p.m. last night to evacuate us, but unfortunately nothing came.” Instead, the Islamic State fighters fled on foot to government lines, but more could have escaped the Taliban pursuit, Mr. Nemat said. “We lost contact with the others last night. I think they contacted the Taliban or went somewhere else.”
Among his followers, he said, were about 25 to 30 foreigners, mostly from Central Asian countries, but also two Frenchmen, known only by Arabic pseudonyms, Abu Mohammad and Abu Mariam. In addition to Mr. Nemat, who is also known as Mufti Nematullah Qaweem, the other Islamic State military commander, Maulavi Habib ul-Rahman, surrendered to the Afghan government forces, according to Abdul Hafiz Khashi, the deputy police chief of Jowzjan Province. The two leaders are brothers-in-law. “The areas the Daeshis controlled were taken by the Taliban,” Mr. Khashi said.
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Well, to be fair, when the Bush presidency learned that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in Afghanistan, his administration, asked the then Taliban-led government to turn him and his fellow conspirators over to the US for prosecution, the response they received wasn't what they expected. The Taliban-led government said that they would not only not turn him over to the US, but that the US was free to try and take him. The US ignorant of the Afghan custom that if a guest is in your home (country) that guest is to be protected and Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, was their guest, and they weren't about to turn him over to anyone for prosecution, especially an "infidel" nation.
