Kerala IS Recruits Caught in 'Mother of All Bombs' in Afghanistan?
Nineteen people who went missing from Kerala and were suspected to have joined the Islamic State, and two newborns were feared killed during the US bombing in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Arunima, Neethu Reghukumar Arunima24
Updated:April 14, 2017, 2:01 PM IST
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: A group from Kerala which was suspected to have joined the Islamic State and two newborns were feared killed during the US bombing in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Intelligence inputs said the people, including three women, were in the same area where the US carried out the bombing. An NIA team will reach out to the families.
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US forces struck an Islamic State tunnel complex with "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military. The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives. Afghan officials said at least 36 militants were decimated.
Bindhu, mother of Nimisha who went to Afghanistan along with her husband, said she was unaware of her daughter's fate. "After hearing this news, I am breathless, don't know what has happened to my child. When my son-in-law called me in November, he told me they are in Nagarhara, which is the place that was affected by the US bombing. I don't know what has happened to my child and my granddaughter," she told CNN-News18. Her granddaughter is one of the two children born after the group reached Afghanistan.
Seventeen men and three women from Kerala were suspected to have joined the Islamic State. While two men were reportedly killed earlier, a third was killed in a US drone strike a day before the bombing.
Kerala ISIS Recruits
National Investigation Agency
| Edited by: Ananya Chakraborty