Taliban has driven ISIS out of eastern Afghanistan with ‘very limited’ U.S. support: Pentagon

The Pentagon’s top general who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East said Tuesday that the Taliban has been “very effective” in demolishing the Islamic State’s presence in eastern Afghanistan.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that the Taliban has been the driving force in ousting ISIS from the country with little assistance from American troops.

“Over the last several months in eastern Afghanistan, we’ve watched the Taliban compress and crush ISIS presence on the ground in southern Nangarhar province, and they’ve been very effective doing that,” Gen. McKenzie said.

“It was a bloody mess, but they did it,” he continued, adding that ISIS no longer holds substantial ground in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.

Gen. McKenzie’s comments come as the Pentagon begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan as part of a landmark peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban.

He explained that the number of troops stationed in Afghanistan will drop from roughly 13,000 to 8,600 by this summer, despite warnings that violence from outside terrorist organizations could surge with a decreased U.S. presence.

Military leaders have cautioned recently that while the ISIS caliphate has largely been defeated in the region, the organization remains active in small pockets and is still a threat to the U.S. and allies.

Gen. McKenzie said the Taliban has been “very effective” in ousting ISIS in “some of the worst terrain in the world,” and explained their operations were conducted with “very limited support from us.”

“They paid a very steep price in their own fighters,” he said.