Daesh beheads 15 of its own members in Nangarhar province, Afghan official

Daesh has beheaded 15 of its own fighters due to infighting in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, officials said, while a separate suicide attack on Thursday tore through a crowd in the provincial capital Jalalabad, killing at least eight people.

The two incidents underline the instability and lawlessness across Afghanistan, where thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded this year amid unrelenting violence, involving militant groups including Daesh and the Taliban.

In a bloody day for the province, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing at least eight people at a meeting of supporters of a police commander who was sacked for illegal land grabbing.

No one has claimed responsibility and there is no immediate indication of who was behind the attack in Jalalabad. The crowd there had  gathered to demand the reinstatement of the commander, who survived the attack.

A spokesman for the Jalalabad hospital confirmed eight people had been killed and 15 others were wounded.

Nangarhar, on the porous border with Pakistan, has become a stronghold for Daesh which has grown to become one of the country's most dangerous militant groups since it appeared around the start of 2015.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor's spokesman, said the 15 Daesh terrorists were killed after a bout of infighting in the group, which has become notorious for its brutality. The killings occurred in the Surkh Ab bazaar of Achin district.

Further details were not available and there was no confirmation from Daesh.

The Taliban and Daesh have frequently fought each other in Nangarhar and both have been targeted by sustained US air strikes.

But the exact nature of the relationship between the two groups is little understood. There have been isolated incidents in Afghanistan in which there appears to have been collaboration between factions of the two groups.