• Afghanistan. Bomb explodes, two US soldiers killed. Attack claimed by the Taliban
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03 August 2020 The attack by ISIS militants in a prison in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan is still ongoing. The attack started yesterday at 18:30 local time and would continue after 14 hours. At the moment the victims would be 21, among them many civilians and children. 43 instead would be the wounded.

The attack started with a car bomb at the entrance of the prison, then a commando of armed men entered shooting at the police. Others would barricade themselves in nearby buildings.
The spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar, Attaullah Khogyanai, added that at least four jihadists were killed. One of them died in the car bomb explosion and three others in clashes with security forces. There are 1,500 people in the prison. Among the detainees there are many Taliban and ISIS members.

Security forces - according to the governor's spokesman - are committed to freeing the prison step by step. Dozens of families residing in nearby buildings have been rescued, but it is not excluded that there are still other people trapped on the upper floors of the building where the jihadists are hiding.

"Security forces are moving slowly and carefully to clean up the building floor by floor, room by room, to protect civilians who may have been trapped."
The assault allowed several inmates to flee, however, "at least 700 prisoners have been captured again and are currently in a temporary prison," added Khogyanai, who did not want to say how many prisoners remain in the prison.

The ISIS attack comes the day after the Afghan secret services have announced that they have killed Ziaurahman, known as Assadullah Orakzai, the intelligence chief of ISIS, in a special forces operation that took place Saturday in Jalalabad.

Assadullah Orakzai, who is of Pakistani origin, was believed to be the 'mind' behind numerous attacks on civilians in Afghanistan.

Sunday was the third and final day of the ceasefire announced by the Taliban and the Kabul government on the occasion of the Muslim festival of Aid al Adha, the "festival of sacrifice"; a truce, the third in 19 years, during which there have been no accidents and which should pave the way for the expected inter-Afghan dialogue for peace.