WASHINGTON — The Islamic State militant group has destroyed more than a dozen schools in a restive district of northern Afghanistan, threatening students and insisting that teachers must amend their curriculum, provincial officials said.
Abul Rahman Mahmoodi, the acting governor of northern Jawzjan province, told VOA that a girl's high school was among the destruction by IS militants during the past 10 days in the Darzab district.
"I wish they had a proper curriculum. Based on our information, [the militants] do not have anything to offer," Mahmoodi said. "They burned down a female high school entirely and plundered other schools in the area, taking their desks and chairs with them after destroying the infrastructure."
According to provincial education officials, IS militants said an educational curriculum acceptable to Islamic State must be taught in areas that the group controls.
Girls Forbidden
A local resident who did not want to disclose his name for safety reasons told VOA that IS militants warned girls not to attend school. They make up 40 percent of the 18,000 enrolled students in the district's 47 government-run schools, which are currently closed for summer holidays.
Abdul Hai Yesheen, Jawzjan province's education chief, told VOA the IS militants destroyed biology labs inside the schools. Islamic State adherents say they consider study of the human skeleton to be a form of polytheism.
IS and rival militants from the Taliban have clashed fiercely in a fight for control of Darzab, and Baz Mohammad Dawar, acting chief of the district, said 10 Taliban militants were beheaded after they were captured by IS fighters last week.
Islamic State and Taliban fighters streamed into Darzab last month from two directions, and scores of Afghan government forces in the area were under siege until counter-strikes by Afghan and U.S. forces took effect. The center of the district was held by the Taliban, with IS militants controlling areas outside Darzab's center, but local officials said both groups subsequently were driven out by the combined Afghan and U.S. effort.
Airstrikes
Airstrikes carried out by U.S. unmanned aircraft, or drones, have killed at least seven IS commanders during the past two weeks, the local officials said.
Two IS commanders who were known as ruthless for the many beheadings they carried out reportedly were killed on Sunday in Darzab. Another five commanders, including the deputy IS leader in the province, were killed last week in neighboring Qoshtaipa district.
IS militants have been most active in eastern parts of Afghanistan until recently, but the extremists have been trying to establish a permanent presence in several of the country's northern provinces.
Another source in the region who asked not to be identified told VOA that IS has been recruiting unemployed youths between the ages of 13 and 20 to join its forces. The militants are said to have recruited hundreds of fighters from Jawzjan and neighboring Sar-e-Pul province, where several districts are controlled by Islamic State or its affiliated groups.
Qari Hekmat, an ethnic Uzbek and former Taliban commander who switched his allegiance to Islamic State a year ago, is said to lead IS-affiliated groups in the region, and is credited with the recruitment of about 500 fighters in his new role. A large number of Central Asian fighters affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), previously associated with al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan, have joined the IS cause in the northern provinces.
-- Written by Noor Zahid and Mohammad Habibzada for Voice Of America