In this Tuesday, July 19, 2016 photo, an Afghan soldier guards the Kabul-Jalalabad highway on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. After two years of heavy casualties, the Afghan military, with U.S. support, is trying to retake the initiative in the war against militants. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

(CNSNews.com) - Fifteen years after the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan to deny al Qaeda safe haven, there are now a dozen terrorist or "extremist" groups operating in the country, according to the top U.S. military commander.



That includes the Islamic State, or Daesh, which is exporting its radical ideology from its base in Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan and other countries.

"Daesh is only one of nine U.S.-designated terrorist organizations here in Afghanistan," Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told a news conference on Thursday. "Additionally there are three other violent extremist organizations.

"These groups are the principle focus of our counter-terrorism mission and the -- the purpose of helping the Afghans to build their capabilities so that they can maintain pressure on these enemy groups and prevent them from realizing their trans-national ambitions."

(In addition to Daesh and the Taliban, he mentioned Tehrik-I-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Some fighters from both of those groups have now migrated over to Daesh, he said.)

Nicholson said Daesh is committing "the same kinds of atrocities" in Afghanistan as they have done in other places, including Saturday's attack in Kabul that killed more than 80 Afghan civilians.

He also said five American servicemembers were wounded this past week as part of a major offensive against Daesh, but all are expected to recover.

Nicholson said the overall U.S. mission in Afghanistan "is on a positive trajectory."



He noted that Daesh controlled around ten districts in southern Nangarhar last December. Then in January, President Obama gave U.S. forces in Afghanistan "counter-terrorism authorities" to attack Daesh, including with air strikes.



"So, since then, U.S. and Afghan partnered forces have attacked Daesh and begun to reduce their area of control. This has included attacks by the Taliban against Daesh as well. So, now since January, their area has shrunk to...parts of three or four districts in southern Nangarhar."



The operations have been successful so far, he said. "We have helped the Afghan Security Forces to reclaim significant portions of the territory that was previously controlled by Daesh. We have killed many Daesh commanders and soldiers, destroyed key infrastructure capabilities, logistical nodes, and Daesh fighters are retreating south into the mountains of southern Nangahar as we speak."



"We will continue to stay after Daesh until they are defeated here in Afghanistan," Nicholson said. He called the fight "critical."



"It's nested within a larger global strategy against Islamic State. It, in fact, coincides with ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria. And again, by fighting groups like Daesh and Al Qaida here in Afghanistan, we deny them sanctuary and we inhibit their ability to conduct trans-national attacks from here."

In addition to their counter-terrorism mission, U.S. troops continue training and advising Afghan soldiers.



Nicholson said there were an estimated 3,000 Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan in January, many of them members of other terrorists groups that changed allegiance.



"And this number that originally was 3,000, we think has been roughly cut in half. We estimate them between -- now between 1,000 and 1,500 at the present time."



Meanwhile, Nicholson said the Taliban still has a "presence" in about one third of the country, but they have firm control in only 10 of Afghanistan's 400 districts.



"They're largely in rural areas -- in the villages and rural areas. But not in the district centers and in none of the provincial capitals."



The fight against the Taliban is not over, Nicholson said, but they have been unable seize and hold territory.