| Battle of Darzab | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWar in Afghanistan (2001–2021) War on terror Islamic State–Taliban conflict | |||||||||
 Islamic State fighters who surrendered to the government at the battle's end | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Taliban |  Islamic Republic of Afghanistan(airstrikes on the Taliban, 30–31 July)[1] | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Mullah Burjan  [2] Haji Shakir †[3] |  Mawlavi Habibul Rahman  Mufti Nemat "Sibghatullah" [4] Haji Murad †[5] | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
Several contingents | Qari Hekmat's network[6]
| ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| c. 2,000(IS-KP claim)[1] | 600–700(Afghan gov. estimate)[7] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Disputed; probably heavy[a] | Disputed; probably heavy[a] 245 surrender to Afghan government[9] | ||||||||
| Several civilians killed,[2] 3,500–7,000 displaced[10] | |||||||||
TheBattle of Darzab (12 July – 1 August 2018) was a major conflict between theTaliban and theIslamic State'sKhorasan Province (ISIS–K) who fought each other over control ofJowzjan Province'sDarzab District inAfghanistan. Following heavy clashes, ISIS–K was defeated, with most of the group's forces in Jowzjan Province killed or captured.
Despite both being opposed to theIslamic Republic of Afghanistan and itsWestern allies, theTaliban and theIslamic State are fierce rivals who have fought each other since 2015.[1][11] The Islamic State's Afghan branch, namely the so-called "Khorasan Province" (often abbreviated ISIS-K or IS-KP), has extensively recruited disaffected ex-Taliban,[4] and its mere presence threatens the Taliban's claim to be "the only legitimate opposition" in Afghanistan.[8] One of thetheaters where the two insurgent groups have repeatedly clashed is the country's north, most importantly the provinces ofJowzjan,Sar-e Pol, andFaryab.[4][8]
The forces of IS-KP in northern Afghanistan consist of local Taliban defectors,[4] and an extensive number of foreignmujahideen includingIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan militants. The power of IS-KP in the north was further boosted by the defection ofUzbek Taliban commanderQari Hekmat and his followers.[8] Hekmat became the leading commander of the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan, and used his large foreign network to recruit fighters fromCentral Asia and to smuggle them into Jowzjan, which had been a "major hub" for various insurgent groups even before theTaliban insurgency's beginning.[12] In course of 2017, the Islamic Statecaptured most ofDarzab District in Jowzjan, and transformed it into its local stronghold. The Taliban subsequently launched at least three major offensives to oust IS-KP from Darzab, but all failed.[3] Meanwhile, however, the US military and the Afghan government increasingly targeted Hekmat's network. Hekmat himself was killed in a US airstrike in April 2018, weakening IS-KP in the north. Hekmat was succeeded by Mawlavi Habibul Rahman,[12] while Mawlavi's brother-in-lawMufti Nemat[1] became second-in-command for Jowzjan Province.[9] Despite Hekmat's death, several foreign fighters recruited by him remained in Darzab, including Uzbeks,Tajiks,Kazakhs,Kyrgyz,Indonesians,Chechens,Pakistanis,Turks, andFrench.[3][6]
Hostilities between IS-KP and the Taliban intensified in early July 2018, after Islamic State fighters seized a Taliban-held village in Darzab District, and beheaded ten Taliban members they had captured there. In response, Taliban forces launched counter-attacks against IS-KP positions in three districts of Jowzjan, including Darzab andQush Tepa, on 12 July.[8] Fighting also spread to Faryab[3] and Sar-e Pol,[8] where Islamic State militants killed Haji Shakir, the Taliban leader inSancharak.[3] On 15 July, IS-KP captured Taliban commander Mullah Burjan in the village of Bibi Maryam, Darzab. His execution three days later[2] caused further intensification of the clashes.[8] By 18 July, a Taliban source claimed that fighting in Darzab District was restricted to the villages of Aqsai, Qara Yorth, Qarighach, and Tash Jawaz, while IS-KP had been allegedly ousted from Kumarlik, Bibi Mariam and Aqblaq.[2]
Sometime in mid-July, the Taliban launched a major offensive to fully evict IS-KP from Jowzjan Province.[4] Islamic State commander Mawlavi Habibul Rahman later claimed that the Taliban had amassed 2,000 fighters in Jowzjan from various areas, includingHelmand Province, for this operation.[1] Employing their elite/special forces, theRed Unit,[4] the Taliban attacked the Islamic State's stronghold[1] of Darzab from three sides simultaneously.[4] By this time, Darzab was held by about 600 to 700 IS-KP fighters according to estimates of the Afghan government.[7] On 22 July, the Taliban overran IS-KP at the villages of Mughal and Sardara, Darzab, where they killed Haji Murad (also known as Haji Qumandan), the Islamic State's deputy commander for Jowzjan.[5][3] In course of heavy combat, the Taliban reportedly inflicted hundreds of casualties on IS-KP,[a] and captured much warmateriel.[4] By 20 July, 3,500 to 7,000 civilians had been displaced by the fighting.[10]
By 30 July, IS-KP was reduced to just two villages in Darzab, whereupon its leaders Mawlavi Habibul Rahman and Mufti Nemat decided to contact the Afghan government;[1] they subsequently agreed to surrender in exchange for protection from the Taliban.[1][4][13] TheAfghan Air Force then started to bombard Taliban positions to prevent them from capturing the remaining Islamic State forces and to ensure their surrender.[1] Nemat later claimed that theAfghan National Army had also agreed to evacuate them with helicopters, though this came not to pass; instead, the Islamic State fighters had to reach government-held territories on foot.[1] About 245 fighters,[9] alongside their families, subsequently surrendered on 1 August, though some Islamic State fighters had disappeared during the retreat. Nemat later speculated that these militants had possibly defected to the Taliban.[1] Among those who laid down arms were, besides Mawlavi and Nemat,[4][11] another commander known as "Sibghatullah",[4] about 100child soldiers,[14] and 25 to 30 foreign mujahideen.[1]
Following their surrender, the IS-KP fighters were transported with helicopters to Jowzjan Province's centerSheberghan. At Sheberghan, the Islamic State militants were treated more like guests than prisoners. This caused great resentment among civilians and soldiers alike, as the militants continued to call their guards, officials and journalists "infidels",[14] and openly "boasted of engaging in acts of extreme barbarism [...], such as beheadings and the use of child soldiers", in interviews with the press.Mufti Nemat said that he considered to join pro-government forces with his followers; he had already fought for the government once in the past.[1] Locals of Darzab, however, petitioned Jowzjan's governor to punish the militants for thewar crimes they had committed.[1][9][14] Several women accused Nemat and his troops of having raped them,[9] while other locals said that the Islamic State fighters had executed over 100 civilians, including children, and had practised slavery inDarzab.[14] The government was consequently widely criticised for "its unexplained action of providing asylum and protection to IS-K militants", prompting officials to declare that the Islamic State fighters would be brought to justice.[13]
The controversial surrender proved to be a "propaganda bonanza" for the Taliban, who contrasted the government's lenient treatment of the IS-KP fighters with their own behavior.[14] Taliban spokesmanZabiullah Mujahid declared that the IS-KP fighters who had been captured by the Taliban would be tried in military courts.[1] The Taliban subsequently released a video showing over a dozen foreign Islamic State fighters who had been captured by them; this video circulated widely on Afghan media, pro-Taliban, and pro-al-Qaeda channels.[6]
Despite claims by both government representatives[1] and Taliban that this campaign had fully defeated the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan, IS-KP still held a few districts of Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol and Faryab.[4]
TheUnited States Department of Defense, in its 2018 quarterly report on Afghanistan, claimed the Taliban's victory over IS-KP in Jowzjan as its own. Early on, the US and Afghan government tried to label the surrender of IS-KP fighters toAfghan military as a "successful operation" conducted by the Afghan military. Although, IS-KP surrendered as a result of defeat at the hands of the Taliban.
FDD's Long War Journal claims that these attempts by the US military highlight just how desperate the US military was to report success in Afghanistan, and how infrequent those successes were in reality.[15]
Chinese Camp was an Afghan National Army base which fell to Taliban control around the time when theGhazni offensive was going on. Afghan army soldiers, who were deployed at Chinese Camp, heavily criticised the army and the government for abandoning them. They claimed that the Afghan military prioritised ferrying IS-KP prisoners inhelicopters over using those helicopters to re-supply the camp. The soldiers asked whether those IS-KP militants were prisoners or honoured guests of the government.[16][17][15]
