Taliban Claims Afghan ISIS Commanders Defecting to Them Over Excessive Violence

Commanders Objected to ISIS Mistreatment of Civilians

by Jason Ditz

Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Jabbar, in the Nangarhar Province, claimed today that six important commanders from the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan have defected to the Taliban, citing objections to ISIS violence against civilians.

According to the Taliban claim, the ISIS commanders had been ordered by the central ISIS leadership to burn villages, seize cattle and behead villagers, and refused to do so, deciding to join the Taliban instead.

They didn’t name any of the ISIS commanders, and there’s no evidence any of this is actually true. If it is, however, it seems like a major coup for the Taliban, which previously has been losing the recruitment battle with ISIS.

If it is true is also suggests ISIS, which has so far been relatively passive in Afghanistan, is looking to get a lot more aggressive against those areas, with Nangarhar Province likely to be the center of that activity.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/04/12/taliban-claims-afghan-isis-commanders-defecting-to-them-over-excessive-violence/