The Afghan Defense Ministry is claiming a series of airstrikes by their nascent air force against what is believed to have been an ISIS meeting, saying at least 40 ISIS fighters were killed in the strikes, and that they were “mostly foreign.”
The attacks took place in the Achin District of the Nangarhar Province, and district governor Gahlib Mujahid says they found out about a planned ISIS meeting in the district, which was targeted. Locals handed the bodies over to other ISIS fighters.
The US has launched 70-80 of its own airstrikes against ISIS, overwhelmingly in Nangarhar, so far this year, and was also claiming that they’d taken out a large portion of the ISIS forces in the country. Pentagon officials insist ISIS remains an “enormous threat” in Afghanistan.
Officials did not detail what planes were involved in the strike, but Afghanistan has a very limited air force at this point, mostly built around attack helicopters. Almost certainly the attacks involved helicopters, given how few planes the Afghan military has capable of launching strikes.