Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militants were battling Afghan security forces in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Monday morning, after an overnight assault on a prison that led to a mass jailbreak, officials said.

The assault began on Sunday evening with car bomb detonated at the entrance to the prison, and there were numerous other blasts heard as the ISIL gunmen opened fire on security guards.

Two Nangarhar province officials said at least five civilians were killed, and around 40 wounded during the initial attack and the gunbattle through the night, as Afghan special forces arrived to support police.

During the ensuing chaos more than 75 prisoners escaped, forcing police to divert manpower to try to recapture them, according to the officials.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack, which came a day after the Afghan intelligence agency said special forces had killed a senior commander of the group near Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar.

Jalalabad, about 130 kilometers east of Kabul, is on the highway leading to the Khyber Pass and the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

This attack came at the end of a weekend cease-fire to mark the Muslim festival Eid-al Adha in which the government released hundreds of Taliban prisoners.

Afghanistan's National Security Council said on Twitter that 317 prisoners had been freed since the holiday began on Friday.

The inmates were part of the 500 Taliban prisoners ordered free by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday in a gesture of goodwill.

Both President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban have signaled that protracted peace negotiations could begin once Eid-al Adha is over. 

The situation on the ground is "hectic," Kabul-based journalist Ali Latifi told DW. 

"What's really important about this attack is that these so-called Islamic State forces are the ones who claimed responsibility," said Latifi. This attack and those on a Sikh temple and maternity ward raised "a lot of questions" about the security situation in Afghanistan and President Ashraf Ghani's claims to have 'obliterated' ISIL in November 2019, Latifi told DW.

A United Nations report last month estimated there are still around 2,200 ISIL members in Afghanistan, and that while the group is in territorial retreat and its leadership has been depleted, it remains capable of carrying out high-profile attacks.

(With input from agencies)