Islamic State militants on Tuesday kidnapped and killed nearly 30 civilians, including children, in the north of Firoz Koh, the capital of Ghor province located in Central Afghanistan.
The local government described it as a revenge attack following the killing of an Isis commander. However, Isis has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
The killings raise concerns about the terrorist organisation's expanding presence in the country. Isis controls territories across Syria and Iraq with Mosul being their stronghold. The group seems to be entering Afghanistan by winning over and recruiting supporters thereby challenging Taliban which has a strong presence in the country.
"Our security forces with the help of locals conducted an operation and killed a Daesh (ISIS) commander yesterday. Daesh fighters in return abducted around 30 villagers, mostly shepherds... Their dead bodies were found by local people this morning," Ghor Governor Nasir Khazeh told AFP.
Abdul Hameed Nateqi, a provincial council member in Ghor, said that the militants were self-proclaimed supporters of Isis.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had declared in March that Isis had been defeated by security forces in an operation that lasted for months. But the terrorist group continues to carry out strikes in the country.
The government is currently fighting against Isis with the backing of NATO that recently said that the terrorist group was slowly losing all of its territory with militants limited to two to three districts.
"Right now we see them (ISIS) very focused on trying to establish their caliphate...inside Afghanistan...Of course with our Afghan partners we have been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on them," John Nicholson, top US and NATO commander, told reporters on Sunday.
