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Suspected fighters from the militant Islamic State (IS) group attacked Taliban militants attending a funeral in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday and killed at least 15 in the latest violence between the rival groups, officials said.
Another five Taliban were wounded in the attack on a house in Sayad district in Sari Pul province, the provincial police chief Abdul Qayum Baqizoi told AFP. A Taliban commander was among the dead, Baqizoi added.
The attackers, who were armed with guns and grenades, fled the area.
The Sari Pul governor's spokesman Zabiullah Amani confirmed the death toll.
“Daesh and Taliban have been fighting each other for more than two months in (neighbouring) Jowzjan and Sari Pul, killing hundreds on both sides,” Amani said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
The Taliban has not commented on the attack. IS did not immediately claim responsibility.
IS first emerged in Afghanistan in 2014, overrunning large parts of the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar near the border with Pakistan, where it engaged in a turf war with the Taliban.
The group has since expanded north and has been battling the Taliban as well as Afghan and US forces.
While the Taliban is Afghanistan's largest militant group, IS has a small but potent presence in the country and has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to carry out devastating attacks in urban areas, including Kabul.
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Start of another great game. Victim is poor Afghan again
Who is supporting Daesh; Hamid Karzai tells us.
‘Noting that IS emerged in Afghanistan over the past few years, Karzai asked: "Who did this under the watch of US intelligence and military in Afghanistan and how come?""We have the right to ask these questions and the US government must answer."
When asked if he had suspicions that US bases in Afghanistan "were being used", the former president said that he had "more than suspicions", claiming that Afghan people had approached him and told the him that they are being supplied with helicopters.
"[They have told me about] how unmarked, non-military coloured helicopters supply these people in not just one, but many parts of the country," Karzai said, adding that such reports were coming in on a daily basis from the people in Afghanistan and from Afghan government sources.
Power struggle for superamacy.
The infighting between two warrior groups is bound to bring more misery to the people and the country.