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ISIS Gunmen Attack State TV Station, Afghan Forces Recapture District Center from Taliban | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Afghan policemen stand guard at a checkpoint in the Deh Sabz district of Kabul, Afghanistan on Oct. 14, 2015. File photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters


ISIS militants stormed the Afghan national television and radio station in Nangarhar province’s city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, triggering a battle with security forces as journalists remained trapped inside the building, officials and eyewitnesses said.

“Three gunmen entered the RTA (Radio Television Afghanistan) building this morning,” government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told Agence France Presse.

“Two of them have been killed and one is still resisting,” he said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS insurgents are active in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital.

The US military last month dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — dubbed the “Mother Of All Bombs” — on ISIS positions in Nangarhar, killing dozens of jihadists.

Wednesday’s developments came a day after an official said that Afghan security forces recaptured the center of Qala-e Zal, a large district in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunduz, that was overrun by the Taliban 10 days ago.

Special forces launched operations to retake the district’s capital of Aqtepa early Tuesday, Mahfozullah Akbari, a police spokesman in Kunduz, told dpa.

“They took control of the district governor’s compound, police headquarters and the main bazaar in Aqtepa, now they are pushing the Taliban further back,” Akbari said.

However, provincial council member Sayed Sadat said the fighting for the main market was ongoing.

Afghan forces were not able to enter the buildings retaken as the Taliban had planted mines in the compounds.

Qala-e-Zal district center fell to the Taliban on May 7, following the launch of the insurgents’ spring offensive on April 28.