Airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan destroy IS radio station

USA airstrikes in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province destroyed an Islamic State radio station and killed more than 20 militants, officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Army Colonel Mike Lawhorn, a spokesman for the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement that U.S. forces had carried out two counterterrorism air strikes in the region’s Achin district late on February 1.

The radio station – which Afghan officials believe was mobile – was also used for recruitment purposes and to issue threats to journalists.

Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan due to its widespread use by the public, reported the Associated Press.

The Islamic State group announced an offshoot in Afghanistan in January 2015, sparking a conflict with the Taliban.

The spokesman for the Nangarhar governor, Attaullah Khogyani, said the strikes had also killed 21 members of IS group, including five who were working for the radio station.

“Acting upon intelligence reports, the pilotless plane of the coalition forces stormed the hideouts of Taliban rebels in Gomal district (of Paktika province) Monday night killing 17 armed insurgents”, Nabiullah Pirkhil, spokesman for the provincial government told Xinhua. While the Taliban only wish to impose their version of Islamic law in Afghanistan, ISIS is bent on imposing their law – and caliphate – worldwide.

The airstrikes’ destruction of the station, which the U.S. State Department had recently added to its IS Afghan affiliate foreign terrorist organizations list, marks a significant victory in a country where only 10 percent of the population has access to the Internet and very few people own televisions, according to the AP. As a testament to this, there are around 175 radio stations operating in Afghanistan alone.