The Battle of Darzab (12 July – 1 August 2018) was a major conflict between the Taliban and the Islamic State's Khorasan Province (IS-KP) who fought each other over control of Jowzjan Province's Darzab District in Afghanistan. Following heavy clashes, IS-KP was defeated, with most of the group's forces in Jowzjan Province killed or captured.
Background
Despite both being opposed to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its Western allies, the Taliban and the Islamic State are fierce rivals who have fought each other since 2015. The Islamic State's Afghan branch, namely the so-called "Khorasan Province" (often abbreviated ISIL-KP), has extensively recruited disaffected ex-Taliban, and its mere presence threatens the Taliban's claim to be "the only legitimate opposition" in Afghanistan. One of the theaters where the two insurgent groups have repeatedly clashed is the country's north, most importantly the provinces of Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol, and Faryab.
The forces of ISIL-KP in northern Afghanistan consist of local Taliban defectors, and an extensive number of foreign mujahideen including Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan militants. The power of ISIL-KP in the north was further boosted by the defection of Uzbek Taliban commander Qari Hekmat and his followers. Hekmat became the leading commander of the Islamic State in northern Afghanistan, and used his large foreign network to recruit fighters from Central Asia and to smuggle them into Jowzjan, which had been a "major hub" for various insurgent groups even before the Taliban insurgency's beginning. In course of 2017, the Islamic State captured most of Darzab District in Jowzjan, and transformed it into its local stronghold. The Taliban subsequently launched at least three major offensives to oust ISIL-KP from Darzab, but all failed. Meanwhile, however, the US military and the Afghan government increasingly targeted Hekmat's network. Hekmat himself was killed in a US airstrike in April 2018, weakening ISIL-KP in the north. Hekmat was succeeded by Mawlavi Habibul Rahman, while Mawlavi's brother-in-law Mufti Nemat became second-in-command for Jowzjan Province. Despite Hekmat's death, several foreign fighters recruited by him remained in Darzab, including Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Indonesians, Chechens, Pakistanis, Turks, and French.
The battle
Hostilities between ISIL-KP and the Taliban intensified in early July 2018, after Islamic State fighters seized a Taliban-held village in Darzab District, and beheaded ten Taliban members they had captured there. In response, Taliban forces launched counter-attacks against ISIL-KP positions in three districts of Jowzjan, including Darzab and Qush Tepa, on 12 July. Fighting also spread to Faryab and Sar-e Pol, where Islamic State militants killed Haji Shakir, the Taliban leader in Sancharak. On 15 July, ISIL-KP captured Taliban commander Mullah Burjan in the village of Bibi Maryam, Darzab. His execution three days later caused a further intensification of the clashes. By 18 July, a Taliban source claimed that fighting in Darzab District was restricted to the villages of Aqsai, Qara Yorth, Qarighach, and Tash Jawaz, while ISIL-KP had been allegedly been ousted from Kumarlik, Bibi Mariam and Aqblaq.
Sometime in mid-July, the Taliban launched a major offensive to fully evict ISIL-KP from Jowzjan Province. Islamic State commander Mawlavi Habibul Rahman later claimed that the Taliban had amassed 2,000 fighters in Jowzjan from various areas, including Helmand Province, for this operation. Employing their elite/special forces, the Red Unit, the Taliban attacked the Islamic State's stronghold of Darzab from three sides simultaneously. By this time, Darzab was held by about 600 to 700 ISIL-KP fighters according to estimates of the Afghan government. On 22 July, the Taliban overran ISIL-KP at the villages of Mughal and Sardara, Darzab, where they killed Haji Murad (also known as Haji Qumandan), the Islamic State's deputy commander for Jowzjan. In course of heavy combat, the Taliban reportedly inflicted hundreds of casualties on ISIL-KP, and captured much war materiel. By 20 July, 3,500 to 7,000 civilians had been displaced by the fighting.