BAKU - Daesh does not have “the ability to orchestrate or control operations” simultaneously in multiple areas in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said, APA reports quoting Anadolu agency.

“We currently characterize them as operationally emergent ... We're not seeing Daesh elements in Iraq or Syria orchestrating events here in Afghanistan,” said Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, during a teleconference briefing for Pentagon correspondents about operations against the Taliban and NATO-led efforts to train, assist and advise Afghan forces.

Shoffner said Daesh is trying to establish a base in Nangarhar province on the southern border with Pakistan but that Afghan forces was successful over the weekend against the militant group in the southern city of Jalalabad, Nangarhar.

"They've largely been pushed back to the southern parts of Nangarhar province. That area is very, very rugged, it's very mountainous, it's on the border with Pakistan, and that's where most of the Daesh in Nangarhar currently is," he said.

Daesh also exists in other parts of the country in "small pockets that mainly consists of low-level recruiting and propaganda," said Shoffner. There is not a significant amount of money coming into Afghanistan to support Daesh, he added.

The State Department last week added Daesh-Khorasan as a foreign terrorist organization. The group is the militant’s Afghanistan branch based in that country and Pakistan. It consists of former members of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban and last year pledged allegiance to Daesh. (Monitoring Desk)