Mr. Ali has extensive experience fighting against Al Qaeda in the area but has also been accused of having helped Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in December 2001, reportedly betraying his American and Afghan allies as they closed in on the Qaeda leadership.

Mr. Ali has denied having done so.

The Islamic State in Khorasan, as the militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan are known, has no direct connection with Al Qaeda, which is largely a spent force in the area. But the Islamic State was originally formed by Qaeda elements, and the two groups have many doctrinal similarities.

Government forces and their coalition allies in the Tora Bora area have engaged in little recent fighting against the Taliban who have been entrenched there, supported by local tribes along the mountainous border with Pakistan. But since March, Afghan forces supported by American Special Operations troops have been mounting a vigorous campaign against the Islamic State in Achin District, also in the Spin Ghar range but about 50 miles to the east of Tora Bora.

All six of the American soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year died in the fighting around Achin District.

The American military said it had killed hundreds of Islamic State fighters in the Achin District area, including the “emir” of the Islamic State in Khorasan, Sheikh Abdul Hasib. Mr. Hasib was a former commander with the Pakistani Taliban, who broke away to join the Islamic State. The Islamic State and the Taliban have been competing savagely for dominance in the areas they control, but the more extreme Islamic State fighters have dominated Achin District as well as some other areas in southern parts of Nangarhar Province.

Taliban officials are concerned about the Islamic State’s appeal to younger fighters impatient with the progress of the 15-year insurgency.

In the Tora Bora area, residents were angry at both the Taliban and the government for allowing the Islamic State to take over. Malak Tor, a tribal elder from Pachir Agam District, where Tora Bora is situated, complained that residents’ demands that the government mount an offensive to protect Tora Bora were ignored.</s>Kabul: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said its fighters had captured Osama bin Laden's infamous Tora Bora mountain hideout in eastern Afghanistan, but the Taliban on Thursday dismissed the claim, saying they were still in control of the cave complex that once housed the former al Qaeda leader.

Attaullah Khogyanai, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province where Tora Bora is located, confirmed to Efe that the region had been captured, spelling the first huge victory for the IS in Afghanistan in two months.

However, he stressed that security forces had already launched an offensive to get rid of the IS.

Earlier, ISIS released an audio recording, saying its signature black flag was flying over the hulking mountain range. The message was broadcast on the militants' Radio Khilafat station in the Pashto language late on Wednesday.

It also said ISIS has taken over several districts and urged villagers who fled the fighting to return to their homes and stay indoors.

A Taliban spokesman denied ISIS was in control, claiming instead that the Taliban had pushed ISIS back from some territory the rival militants had taken in the area.

The Tora Bora mountains hide a warren of caves in which al Qaeda militants led by bin Laden hid from U.S. coalition forces in 2001, after the Taliban fled Kabul and before he fled to neighboring Pakistan.

According to testimony from al Qaeda captives in the U.S. prison at Guantamo Bay, Cuba, bin Laden fled from Tora Bora first to Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province, before crossing the border into Pakistan. He was killed in a 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on his hideout in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

Pakistan complained the raid violated its sovereignty while bin Laden's presence -- barely a few miles from the Pakistani equivalent of America's West Point military academy -- reinforced allegations by those who accused Pakistan of harboring the Taliban and al Qaeda militants. Pakistan denies such charges, pointing to senior al Qaeda operatives it has turned over to the United States.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Taliban fighters had pushed back ISIS militants from areas of Tora Bora that they had earlier captured.

He emphasised that most parts of Tora-Bora were still under the Taliban control, and added that they had sent reinforcements to carry out a fresh counterattack.

This is the most significant IS triumph since April 13 when it lost its main base during a US bombing in Achin district of Nangarhar province.

The US had then dropped the powerful GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast device, dubbed the "mother of all bombs", to wipe out a cave and bunker complex, killing around a hundred IS fighters and commanders.

The tunnels of Tora Bora were built by the Taliban with the US help during the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-89), and later served as an Al Qaeda and the Taliban stronghold during the 2001 US invasion.</s>The Islamic State group have said its fighters captured Osama bin Laden's infamous Tora Bora mountain hideout along eastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

The remote region in Nangarhar province was most famously used by al Qaeda leader bin Laden in late 2001, in a bid to hold out against the US troops and Afghan allies who toppled the Taliban regime.

Now Afghan officials say Islamic State militants have seized cave complexes in Tora Bora, after days of fighting against Taliban who had been based there.

The Taliban, however, said on Thursday that they were still in control of the cave complex, despite fighting in surrounding villages.

ISIS's attacks near Tora Bora come two months after the United States dropped the MOAB - or the Mother of All Bombs, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world - on another IS hideout in eastern Afghanistan, killing dozens.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid acknowledged that Islamic State forces had managed to capture several villages, but he denied that they had seized Tora Bora.

'Those areas around Tora Bora were a Taliban stronghold, but now Daesh militants captured them during fighting,' the police commander in the area, Shah Wali, told Reuters, using an Arabic term for Islamic State.

Mujahid told The Associated Press that more than 30 IS fighters were killed in battle. He also added that a US airstrike on Taliban positions on Wednesday that killed 11 of its fighters had benefited the Islamic State group.

The remoteness of the area makes it impossible to independently verify the contradictory claims.

Afghan officials earlier said that fighting between IS and the Taliban, who had controlled Tora Bora, began on Tuesday but couldn't confirm its capture.

IS released an audio recording, saying its signature black flag was flying over the hulking mountain range.

The message was broadcast on the militants' Radio Khilafat station in the Pashto language late on Wednesday.

It also said IS has taken over several districts and urged villagers who fled the fighting to return to their homes and stay indoors.

Abu Omar Khorasani, an Islamic State commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters that his fighters had seized Tora Bora and were also battling government troops, who are backed by U.S. ground troops and aircraft.

'We are in Tora Bora but this is not the end,' Khorasani said. 'The plan is to take more territory from the government and the Taliban.'

Security analyst and counter-terrorism expert David Otto told IB Times that ISIS will not be able to stay in Tora Bora, due to lack of local support.

'The area is a strategic trade route for Isis to keep their resource flow and it is a very hostile territory that even Russia, the US and the UK failed to secure and stabilise for long,' he said.

He added: 'Holding this territory will be an expensive venture and Isis does not really have the ability to hold Tora Bora for long, hence the reason why the Taliban would quickly refute this claim.

'The Taliban structure made up of former Mujahideen fighters will not give up Tora Bora easily. This is an area where 'culture eats strategy for breakfast'.

'If in the rare circumstances it falls to the hands of Isis, it will be their downfall. They will need constant logistical local supply to stay in Tora Bora.'

Government forces have launched new operations targeting Islamic State, but more fighters are being recruited or crossing the border from Pakistan, said Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar governor's office.

'You kill one Daesh fighter and 10 more come from the border or are recruited here,' he said.

General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, has vowed to defeat Islamic State in Afghanistan this year, and in April used one of the largest conventional bombs ever dropped in combat to target a cave complex used by Islamic State in the nearby district of Achin.

'After Achin, Daesh was looking for a second stronghold and now they have it,' Wali said.

The fighting has sent hundreds of families fleeing, said Malek Tor, a tribal elder who put the number of Islamic State fighters in the area in the hundreds.

In April, the United States dropped the 'Mother of All Bombs' in Afghanistan in an attempt to hit ISIS fighters and facilities.

It was the first time that the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast was unleashed, and it hit IS positions in a remote area of eastern Nangarhar province.

The unprecedented attack triggered global shock waves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered a threat as big as the resurgent Taliban.

The bomb smashed IS's hideouts, a tunnel-and-cave complex that had been mined against conventional ground attacks, engulfing the remote area in a huge mushroom cloud and towering flames.

'At least 92 Daesh (IS) fighters were killed in the bombing,' Achin district governor Esmail Shinwari told AFP at the time, adding that three tunnels that sheltered the insurgents had been destroyed.

The massive bomb was dropped after fighting intensified and US-backed ground forces struggled to advance on the area.

While the United States estimates there are about 800 IS fighters in Afghanistan, mostly restricted to the eastern Nangarhar province, other estimates say their ranks also include thousands of battle-hardened Uzbek militants.

Last week Russia announced it was reinforcing two of its bases in Central Asia, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, with its newest weapons because of fears of a 'spill-over of terrorist activities from Afghanistan' by the Afghan IS affiliate.

'The (IS) group's strategy to establish an Islamic caliphate poses a threat not only to Afghanistan but also to the neighboring countries,' Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

The Tora Bora mountains hide a warren of caves in which al-Qaeda militants led by bin Laden hid from US coalition forces in 2001, after the Taliban fled Kabul and before he fled to neighboring Pakistan.

According to testimony from al-Qaeda captives in the US prison at Guantamo Bay, Cuba, bin Laden fled from Tora Bora first to Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province, before crossing the border into Pakistan.

He was killed in a 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs on his hideout in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

Pakistan complained the raid violated its sovereignty while bin Laden's presence - barely a few miles from the Pakistani equivalent of America's West Point military academy - reinforced allegations by those who accused Pakistan of harboring the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

Pakistan denies such charges, pointing to senior al-Qaida operatives it has turned over to the United States.</s>The Islamic State terror network claimed its fighters captured Usama bin Laden’s Tora Bora hideout in eastern Afghanistan, but the Taliban disputed the claim on Thursday.

ISIS released an audio recording on Wednesday saying its signature black flag was flying over the mountain range.

A Taliban spokesman denied ISIS was in control, claiming instead that the Taliban had pushed ISIS back from some territory the rival militants had taken in the area, The New York Times reported.

The cave complex was infamous for being Usama bin Laden’s hideout when he was on the run from U.S. coalition forces following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, for which he claimed responsibility. He fled from the cave to Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar province, before crossing the border into Pakistan, according to the Al Qaeda captives in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. Navy SEALs are credited with killing him in his hideout in Pakistan in 2011.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told The Associated Press the Taliban had pushed ISIS back from some territory the rival militants had taken previously in the Tora Bora area.

Mujahid claimed more than 30 ISIS fighters were killed in the battle. He also added that U.S. airstrike on Taliban positions on Wednesday that killed 11 of its fighters had benefitted ISIS.

MORE THAN 100 ISIS FIGHTERS ATTACK IRAQI FORCES IN MOSUL

Earlier, Afghan officials said that fighting between ISIS and the Taliban, who had controlled Tora Bora, began on Tuesday, but could not confirm that ISIS captured the hideout.

Afghan Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Daulat Waziri did not say if ISIS was in complete control of Tora Bora but said Afghan forces killed five ISIS fighters in the Chaparhar district of eastern Nangarhar province and pushed them out of the region.

The area’s remote location makes it difficult to verify any of the claims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>Capture of giant Tora Bora complex would mark major victory for group as it clashes with Taliban

Islamic State fighters have captured some territory around Tora Bora, the former stronghold of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, officials said on Wednesday.

The push and capture of the giant cave complex that once housed the late al-Qaida chief would be a major victory for the Islamic State group in its increasingly deadly rivalry with the Afghan Taliban. The caves had until now been under Taliban control.</s>Islamic State fighters have captured some territory around Tora Bora, the former stronghold of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Wednesday.

The push and capture of the giant cave complex that once housed the late al-Qaida chief would be a major victory for the Islamic State group in its increasingly deadly rivalry with the Afghan Taliban. The caves had until now been under Taliban control.

Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman in Nangarhar, said Isis attacks in the mountain range began late on Tuesday night. Clashes continued into the day, with Isis militants battling the Taliban and some local villagers in the area.

By Wednesday, Isis had managed to seize some territory around Tora Bora – but not the bin Laden hideout itself, Khogyani said, adding that there were unspecified casualties on both sides.

“I can confirm that the Isis fighters occupied some areas around Tora Bora, but not Tora Bora itself,” said Khogyani, referring to the cave complex from where Bin Laden and hundreds of other al-Qaida members escaped a huge US bombing campaign in December 2001.

There has been no comment from Isis or the Taliban so far.

However, Hazrat Ali, a lawmaker from Nangarhar, confirmed that at least 12 Taliban fighters had been killed in the clash. “Based on our information from local people, hundreds of Isis fighters attacked Taliban militants in Tora Bora,” said Ali.

He added that the Tora Bora mountain range, with the huge caves that once hid Bin Laden, was strategically a very important location for Isis, giving it a remote and difficult-to-access location from where to launch attacks on Afghan government forces as well as the Taliban.

Shirin Agha Faqiri, a spokesman for the army corps in eastern Nangarhar, said Isis fighters had captured much of the Tora Bora mountains, and even positioned some of their heavy artillery on the mountain peaks there.

“People and the local villagers are fleeing to other parts of the province,” he added.

Tora Bora was Bin Laden’s last hideout in Afghanistan, where he and his al-Qaida followers where hosted by the Taliban. Only a few months after the September 11 2001 terror attacks, Bin Laden escaped a US assault in Tora Bora, and later managed to flee to Pakistan.

Bin Laden was killed in a US navy Seals raid in May 2011 in the army garrison town of Abbotabad in neighboring Pakistan, a raid that many Pakistanis have felt violated their country’s sovereignty. Al-Qaida’s No 2 and Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, took over the terror network.

The Taliban have continued their insurgency in Afghanistan and over the past two years, an affiliate of the Islamic State group, which has been fighting in Iraq and Syria, also emerged in the country, gaining a foothold in the east and clashing with the Taliban.

The US estimates that there are about 600 to 800 Isis fighters in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The US has concentrated on fighting them while also supporting Afghan forces against the Taliban.

In April, the US used its biggest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped in combat against Isis in Nangarhar, targeting a tunnel complex carved in the mountains that Afghan forces have tried to assault repeatedly but without success.</s>Islamic State fighters have captured Tora Bora, a mountain cave complex in eastern Afghanistan that was once the hideout of Osama bin Laden, officials said Thursday, despite pressure on the jihadists from US-led forces.

The militants seized the territory from the Taliban this week after days of heavy fighting, in a show of strength just two months after the US military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat on a nearby IS stronghold.

"Tora Bora has fallen into the hands of IS fighters," government spokesman Attaullah Khogyani told AFP. "Afghan troops last night launched an operation to take it back from IS."

Tora Bora in eastern Nangarhar province was the site of a major US military offensive in late 2001, when Al-Qaeda chief bin Laden was believed to be hiding there.

He later crossed into neighbouring Pakistan, where he was killed in a US raid in 2011.

Local tribesmen confirmed to AFP that the Taliban had retreated from large parts of Tora Bora.

"When Daesh (IS) fighters launched their operation to seize Tora Bora, the Taliban fled the area and left us alone to protect our women and children," said Juma Khan, a tribesman who fled the area with hundreds of other local families.

First emerging in 2015, IS's local affiliate has made rapid inroads into Afghanistan, overrunning large parts of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The fresh IS assault and capture of Tora Bora comes despite a heavy US-backed Afghan offensive against the militants.

The deployment in April of the US military's so-called Mother Of All Bombs on another tunnel-and-cave complex in nearby Achin district killed dozens of jihadists, but fighting in the area has continued unabated.

The fall of the Tora Bora has also prompted heated discussion in the Afghan parliament, with lawmakers warning the government of growing IS activity in eastern Afghanistan.

"Is this government unaware of the problem? Is this government here to kill us?" asked MP Hazrat Ali.</s>Isis have taken control of a mountain redoubt in Afghanistan that used to be the fortress of Osama Bin Laden, former leader of al-Qaeda.

Officials and villagers fleeing the area told the New York Times that Isis militants captured the cave complex, in the Nangarhar Province, on Wednesday (14 June) after week-long fighting in the region.

Tora Bora was captured from al-Qaeda in 2001. It subsequently fell under the rule of the Taliban, an Islamic hard-line movement that fights against the government in Kabul and aims to establish a strict version of Sharia law in the country.

Residents claimed that Isis took control of Tora Bora after the Taliban fled, without fighting to maintain control of the area.

However, the Taliban denied the claims and said they were still fighting against Isis, their rival group in the country.

"Fighting is underway in the Tora Bora area between Isis and our mujahedeen," Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, said. "It is the front line between our mujahedeen and Isis. No one has advanced in the area."

It is believed that Isis moved to Tora Bora after US forces dropped what was deemed as the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used in a conflict in the Achin District, Nangarhar, killing at least 36 Isis fighters in April.

Following the seizure of Tora Bora, the Afghani army will begin ground, and air and artillery operations against the militants in the region as soon as possible, officials said.

Afghanistan has been rocked by a string of attacks at the hands of militants that aim to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Last month, Isis claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack that killed at least 90 people and wounded more than 450 in Kabul.

In April, some 10 Taliban militants disguised as military personnel killed at least 140 soldiers during an attack at a military base in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh Province.

The attack took place just weeks after Isis militants disguised as doctors stormed the country's largest military hospital in Kabul, killing at least 50 people.

The Afghanistan Embassy in London had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.</s>AT-KABUL: Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Wednesday said that three Taliban mine planters were killed by own explosives while they were planting it in a roadside in Paktika last night.

MoI in a statement said that the incident took place in Gudal region, Mata Khan District of Paktika province, while Taliban planned to plant a roadside mine.

In the meantime, General Command of Police Special Units (GCPSU) launched an operation in Maidan Shahr city capital of Wardak province.

As a result, General Command of Police Special Units arrested a senior member of armed Taliban who was involved in destructive and terrorist activities.

GCPSU seized two roadside bombs and one rocket during operations as well.</s>Kabul (Afghanistan): The Islamic State group said its fighters have captured Osama bin Laden's infamous Tora Bora mountain hideout in eastern Afghanistan but the Taliban on Thursday dismissed the claim, saying they were still in control of the cave complex that once housed the former al-Qaida leader.

Earlier, Islamic State released an audio recording, saying its signature black flag was flying over the hulking mountain range. The message was broadcast on the militants' Radio Khilafat station in the Pashto language late on Wednesday.

It also said Islamic State has taken over several districts and urged villagers who fled the fighting to return to their homes and stay indoors.

A Taliban spokesman denied the terrorist group was in control, claiming instead that the Taliban had pushed Islamic State back from some territory the rival militants had taken in the area.

The Tora Bora mountains hide a warren of caves in which al-Qaeda militants led by bin Laden hid from US coalition forces in 2001, after the Taliban fled Kabul and before he fled to neighboring Pakistan.

According to testimony from al-Qaida captives in the US prison at Guantamo Bay, Cuba, bin Laden fled from Tora Bora first to Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province, before crossing the border into Pakistan. He was killed in a 2011 raid by US Navy SEALs on his hideout in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad.

Pakistan complained the raid violated its sovereignty while bin Laden's presence — barely a few miles from the Pakistani equivalent of America's West Point military academy — reinforced allegations by those who accused Pakistan of harboring the Taliban and al-Qaida militants. Pakistan denies such charges, pointing to senior Qaida operatives it has turned over to the United States.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Taliban fighters pushed back the Islamic State group from areas of Tora Bora that IS had earlier captured.

Mujahid claimed that more than 30 Islamic State fighters were killed in battle. He also added that a US airstrike on Taliban positions on Wednesday that killed 11 of its fighters had benefited the Islamic State group.

The remoteness of the area makes it impossible to independently verify the contradictory claims.

Afghan officials earlier said that fighting between Islamic State and the Taliban, who had controlled Tora Bora, began on Tuesday but couldn't confirm its capture.

While the United States estimates there are about 800 Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, mostly restricted to the eastern Nangarhar province, other estimates say their ranks also include thousands of battle-hardened Uzbek militants.

Last week Russia announced it was reinforcing two of its bases in Central Asia, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, with its newest weapons because of fears of a "spill-over of terrorist activities from Afghanistan" by the Afghan Islamic State affiliate.

"The (Islamic State) group's strategy to establish an Islamic caliphate poses a threat not only to Afghanistan but also to the neighboring countries," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
After a week-long assault, ISIL-KP captures the Tora Bora cave complex from the Taliban, allegedly in reaction to the 2017 Nangarhar airstrike. The Taliban say the fighting is still underway.