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.
(With Agency inputs)
