Afghanistan - the third front of the "Islamic state"
The leaders of the "Islamic State" (IG) announced the creation of a new direction, which will be responsible for the conduct of hostilities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unlike the United States, which are not in a hurry to recognize the emergence of IS in Afghanistan, in Kabul, the facts of the presence of militants of this group arriving from Syria and Iraq in the country are not denied.
From official sources in Afghanistan, there were reports that the IG opens offices to recruit its supporters, sending dozens of propagandists to Afghanistan processing the Afghan youth. "We will become either invaders or martyrs." This is a quotation from an IG propaganda brochure published for Afghans. IG urges Afghan citizens to swear allegiance to “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and join the jihad.
We are not talking about an alliance of the IS with the Taliban; rather, the terrorists from these groups will not be able to avoid direct confrontation and armed struggle. The “Islamic State” would like to open a third civil war front in Afghanistan (after Iraq and Syria). The Taliban continues to be an important component of Al-Qaida, from which the IG defiantly withdrew, offering the new generation of Afghans a more bloody version of the struggle for power. There is a new threat to the escalation of violence in Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan, the IG is trying to split the ranks of the Taliban, reassigning part of their forces. In the largest Afghan province of Helmand, the appearance of a group of recruiters led by the former Taliban corps commander Mullah Abdul Rauf, who arrived from Syria, is noted. Abdul Rauf was arrested after the US invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban regime. For many years he was in Guantanamo prison, then he was released by the Americans to freedom and fought in the ranks of the IG in Syria. He believes that the IS and the Taliban have an ideological community, but there are differences that exclude the possibility of close alliance. His task is to provoke a split and transfer part of the Taliban forces to his submission.
Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban, left the country after the American invasion of 2001 and is not actively guiding the movement. His passivity does not suit many Taliban who are ready to use the IS tactics. For the "Islamic state" it is important to stop the reconciliation process, to gain time. Not having enough strength at the moment to gain a foothold in Afghanistan, the IG plans to support the Taliban who have come to its side weapons and money.
Recently, there has been a marked increase in the number of large-scale clashes between the security forces and the army of Afghanistan with armed opposition, when militant units outnumber 500-600 people. Just like the terrorists from the IS, they use black flags and black uniforms, the number of foreigners fighting in their ranks has significantly increased. The militants who arrived in Afghanistan confess their Islam, which strongly differs from local traditions. During the battles with them, government troops suffer significant losses, since these units are not limited to local attacks and sabotage, but try to hold the captured objects and settlements for several days. Among the captured militants of the IS, more and more of those who moved to Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan.
Pakistani Taliban leaders have already declared their loyalty to the Islamic State and are ready to help it create a global caliphate. The Taliban statement, published in Urdu, Pashto and Arabic, says: "All Muslims of the world have great hopes for you... We are with you, we will provide you with fighters and support you with all our strength." This refers to the coordination of military actions by all terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East and South Asia to overthrow the government of Afghanistan. The operation currently being carried out by the Pakistani army against local units of the Tahreek-e Taliban Pakistan organization has led to a mass movement of militants to Afghan territory. The terrorists, driven out of the western regions of Pakistan, are well armed and occupy mainly those areas of central and southern Afghanistan where there is practically no government. Pakistani Taliban are freely establishing training centers on Afghan territory and are training intensively - this is one of the sad results of the 13-year US and NATO operation "Enduring Freedom", which has ended.
The activities of the IG are not limited to any one part of Afghanistan. Now IG militants are expanding propaganda work in the north of the country. The leaders of the Afghan secret services confirmed the appearance of IS militants in the settlements bordering Turkmenistan and their activation on the border with Uzbekistan is noted. Here, in the Afghan province of Balkh, the forces of the local militia “Marg” (“Death”) are being formed, which has as its main task the struggle with the armed forces of the “Islamic State”. Such a decision in Kabul was regarded as timely and necessary. Earlier, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Usmon Gozi, announced the joining of his terrorist organization to the IS militants. In the ranks of the IG in Syria and Iraq are currently fighting several hundred immigrants from Uzbekistan.
In Moscow, at the session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s Collective Security Council’s session, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “The current situation is a matter of concern, militia groups of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant appear, threatening to include some provinces of Afghanistan in the so-called "Islamic Caliphate". Moscow proceeds from the fact that common sense will make it possible to overcome the barriers to the establishment of practical interaction between NATO and the CSTO that do not have a rational explanation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged "to step up efforts in the Afghan direction and in other formats - through the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization."
However, the US administration lacks the courage to admit the lack of real results from the many years of Western military presence in Afghanistan. The struggle against terrorism widely publicized by the Americans backfired, the terrorist threat increased. The crisis in Afghanistan has called into question the whole concept of the modern Afghan state being built by the West. Now, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel does not rule out that the United States will have to send ground army units to Iraq to fight IS, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby says that it may take “three to five years” to defeat IS. . And at the same time, the Americans are still silent on the fight against IS in Afghanistan. Washington does not take any measures to prevent the penetration of “Jihad warriors” into Afghanistan.
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