Kabul, Afghanistan: The Daesh group said its fighters have captured Osama Bin Laden’s infamous Tora Bora mountain hideout in eastern Afghanistan but the Taliban on Thursday dismissed the claim, saying they were still in control of the cave complex that once housed the former al-Qaida leader.
Earlier, Daesh released an audio recording, saying its signature black flag was flying over the hulking mountain range. The message was broadcast on the militants’ Radio Khilafat station in the Pashto language late on Wednesday.
It also said Daesh has taken over several districts and urged villagers who fled the fighting to return to their homes and stay indoors.
A Taliban spokesman denied Daesh was in control, claiming instead that the Taliban had pushed Daesh back from some territory the rival militants had taken in the area.
The Tora Bora mountains hide a warren of caves in which Al Qaida militants led by Bin Laden hid from US coalition forces in 2001, after the Taliban fled Kabul and before he fled to neighbouring Pakistan.
According to testimony from Al Qaida captives in the US prison at Guantamo Bay, Cuba, Bin Laden fled from Tora Bora first to Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province, before crossing the border into Pakistan. He was killed in a 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs on his hideout in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.
Pakistan complained the raid violated its sovereignty while Bin Laden’s presence — barely a few miles from the Pakistani equivalent of Washington’s West Point military academy — reinforced allegations by those who accused Pakistan of harbouring the Taliban and Al Qaida militants. Pakistan denies such charges, pointing to senior al-Qaida operatives it has turned over to the United States.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told journalists in a telephone interview that Taliban fighters pushed back the Daesh group from areas of Tora Bora that Daesh had earlier captured.
Mujahid claimed that more than 30 Daesh fighters were killed in battle. He also added that a US air strike on Taliban positions on Wednesday that killed 11 of its fighters had benefited the Daesh group.
The remoteness of the area makes it impossible to independently verify the contradictory claims.
Afghan officials earlier said that fighting between Daesh and the Taliban, who had controlled Tora Bora, began on Tuesday but couldn’t confirm its capture.
While the United States estimates there are about 800 Daesh fighters in Afghanistan, mostly restricted to the eastern Nangarhar province, other estimates say their ranks also include thousands of battle-hardened Uzbek militants.
Last week Russia announced it was reinforcing two of its bases in Central Asia, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, with its newest weapons because of fears of a “spillover of terrorist activities from Afghanistan” by the Afghan Daesh affiliate.
“The [Daesh] group’s strategy to establish an Islamic caliphate poses a threat not only to Afghanistan but also to the neighbouring countries,” Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
