Daesh claims attack on Afghanistan TV building

The Daesh terrorist organization said its fighters attacked an Afghan state television building in the eastern city of Jalalabad yesterday morning. The group's Amaq news agency said the fighters were inside the building.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the attack began with an explosion, followed by a gun battle with Afghan security forces. Inhamullah Miakhial, a spokesman for the provincial hospital in Nangarhar, said it has received 14 wounded people.

Pashtun Khan, an officer in the Nangarhar police chief's office, confirmed the battle was underway near the state-run radio and television building in the provincial capital, Jalalabad, saying at least one attacker had been shot and killed. The state media building is close to the governor's compound and a police station.

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar, the eastern province on the border with Pakistan where Daesh militants have established a stronghold. There is also a strong Taliban presence in the region.

The U.S. military last month dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the "Mother Of All Bombs" -- on IS positions in Nangarhar, killing dozens of jihadists. The bombing triggered global shock waves, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that is not considered as big a threat as the resurgent Taliban. According to the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, defections and recent battlefield losses have reduced the local Daesh presence from a peak of as many as 3,000 fighters to a maximum of 800.