U.S. and Afghan Special Forces captured the main Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold in Afghanistan after conducting an assault on the area which killed nearly 170 militants and resulted in no American casualties, military officials announced Saturday.
Military officials told Reuters that the Special Forces completed the months-long multi-pronged military operation last month in the Deh Bala region near Pakistan’s border.
Out of the 600 Green Berets and three Afghan commando companies, none of the troops died during the offensive, according to Military.com.
“This area, two months ago, was controlled by [ISIS],” Brig. Gen. John W. Brennan Jr., commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan told Military.com. “We pushed them into the mountains, so they cannot harm the people here.”
The area had provided a financial and logistical base for ISIS’s operations, and the terror group had used the site to plot attacks on more populated areas in Afghanistan such as Kabul and Jalalabad.
“This was one of the main green zones that did two things. One, it provided money, finance, logistics to ISIS and we’ve taken that away from them,” Lt. Col. Josh Thiel from the U.S. First Special Forces Group told Reuters. “Additionally, ISIS was using this as a site to prepare and move high-profile attacks on Kabul and Jalalabad.”
U.S. and Afghan officials said that troops discovered beheaded women and booby traps when fighting the militants.
Despite the victory, ISIS still poses a risk to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. On Saturday, an Army soldier died from wounds sustained in an “apparent insider attack” in central Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province, the Defense Department announced Sunday. Two other service members were injured in the attack, and remain in stable condition.
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