2 Malaysian IS fighters captured by Taliban in Kabul

Taliban authorities are interrogating two Malaysians fighting alongside IS-K, the Afghan chapter of the IS terrorist group which has been fighting against both the Taliban and US forces, Britain’s The Times reports.

It quoted the Taliban’s intelligence chief Maulawi Saifullah Mohammed as saying that the pair had been captured alongside four other IS-K fighters during a gun battle on Thursday night.

“Four are Afghans but it seems the other two are Malaysian,” the paper quoted Saifullah as saying.

The report did not identify the Malaysians.

Saifullah said the IS prisoners would eventually “crack” during interrogation.

“They aren’t as tough as they think they are. We’ve just beaten the armies from 36 Nato countries so we know we can capture and kill the Daesh [IS] wherever we find them,” he said.

This came as a raging battle between the Taliban and IS fighters continued in Kabul after a suicide attack by IS at the Kabul airport which left more than 200 dead, including about a dozen American troops.

IS-K was established by disgruntled members of Taliban, and aims to establish an Islamic caliphate in what was once known as the Khorasan region, made up of present-day northeastern Iran, parts of Afghanistan and some parts of Central Asia.

Malaysians are among the thousands of foreign fighters who joined IS at the peak of the war in Iraq and Syria.

Authorities previously said that a total of 102 Malaysians were known to have left the country to join IS, and that some 40 of them had died in battle.