((presstv) -- Officials said on Thursday that ISIS militants had seized the cave and tunnel complexes in Tora Bora from the rival Taliban militant group after days of fighting.
“Those areas around Tora Bora were a Taliban stronghold, but now ISIS militants captured them during fighting,” said the police commander in the area, Shah Wali.
The remote region, in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, used to be the hideout of notorious Saudi al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in late 2001 before he fled to Pakistan, where he was killed years later.
“After Achin, ISIS was looking for a second stronghold and now they have it,” Wali said, referring to the Achin district, which is located in the same southern Afghan province as Tora Bora.
Meanwhile, the Takiri group has said it plans to extend the territory under its control in Afghanistan.
“We are in Tora Bora, but this is not the end,” Abu Omar Khorasani, an ISIS commander, said as quoted by media, adding, “The plan is to take more territory from the government and the Taliban.”
ISIS, which is mainly concentrated in Iraq and Syria, has been sustaining heavy losses in battles with national armies and allied forces in those countries in the past months.
The Takifiri group emerged in Afghanistan in early 2015 and has claimed responsibility for some deadly attacks in the country.