Afghan militia beheads four Daesh fighters

Afghan militia men raise their weapons as they stand guard in the Achin district of Nangarhar province east of Kabul.

Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Daesh fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Sunday.
The killings in Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar highlighted the increasingly brutal violence of the fight between Daesh and rival groups, ranging from local militias to the Taleban.
Daesh has made inroads in several districts of the province as they try to build strength and replace the hardline Taleban insurgents.
Dozens of members of a local militia force loyal to Haji Zahir, deputy speaker of parliament, have been battling both Taleban and Daesh militants in the district for weeks.
Daesh militants first captured four fighters from the militia, known as Pasoon or "Uprising" and beheaded them. The militias then retaliated, Zahir told reporters.
"Do you think if they behead you, you cook them sweets?" Zahir asked.
Ataullah Khoqani, spokesman for the provincial governor said Afghan government forces were not involved in the incident, adding that the incident is being investigated.
In a sign of the growing reach of Daesh, militants have taken to the airwaves in a radio show called "Voice of the Caliphate" in Nangarhar to win recruits among young Afghans.
Last week, local authorities said they had blocked the broadcast but Zahir said the 90-minute daily Pashto language broadcast was still operational.
Daesh is relatively a new force in Afghanistan and there is some dispute about how strong it is, how many members it commands and how closely they are linked operationally to the movement's main arm in Iraq and Syria.
Last week, the commander of international forces in the country, US General John Campbell, said there were between 1,000 to 3,000 members of the movement in Afghanistan and he said its influence would spread if left unchecked.