US Forces in Afghanistan significantly increase airstrikes against Islamic State

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The United States is ramping up efforts on two fronts in Afghanistan ? "significantly" increasing airstrikes against Islamic State in the country's east while providing more advisers to Afghan troops fighting the Taliban in the country's south.

Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon via videoconference from Kabul on Thursday that the U.S. estimates there are now between 1,000 and 3,000 Islamic State-Khorasan fighters in Afghanistan. Islamic State has designated Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Iran as its so-called "Khorasan" province.

Most fighters pledging allegiance to Islamic State-Khorasan are in four or five districts in the southern part of Nangarhar province, where Shoffner says he's seen them trying to "establish a base."

Nangarhar province borders the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, allowing IS-Khorasan to recruit both Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban, or TTP.

?Additional flexibility?

The White House approved military authorization to target Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan late last month.