Taliban rejects Vladimir Putin's claim of ISIS-K presence in northern Afghanistan

The Taliban on Saturday rejected Russia’s claims that there was a heavy presence of the ISIS-K, an affiliate of the terror group Islamic State (IS), in northern Afghanistan, TOLO news reported. During a virtual summit with the leaders of the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS), Russian President Vladimir Putin had claimed that the  ISIS-K has been active in the north of Afghanistan after the final drawdown of the US troops on August 31. Negating the claim, officials at the Cultural Commission of the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture in Afghanistan stated that such reports about Daesh’s presence are not true. 

“Concerns expressed in this regard are, to some extent, baseless. Daesh has no support from the people in any part of Afghanistan,” the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture said in a statement, as cited by TOLO news.

This comes despite the fact that Russia divulged the estimated figure of the Daesh terrorists that Kabul was now harbouring. Russia claims that around 2,000 IS terrorists are present in the north of Afghanistan and that they pose threats against CIS states. Anaamullah Samangani, a member of the commission reportedly trashed the reports, saying that the claims had no bases and that ISIS was not operating in any part of the conflict-ridden territory.

“According to our data, the number of IS (Islamic State) members in northern Afghanistan alone is about 2,000 people. Their leaders want to influence the Central Asian states, Russian regions, and they are focused on escalating ethnoreligious conflicts and religious hate. Terrorists seek to enter the territory of the Commonwealth (of Independent States), including under the guise of refugees,” Russia’s Putin said at the event, as reported by TOLO news. Putin also stated that the CIS must hold an interaction with the Taliban, but shall not rush to recognise the government. 

Al-Qaeda could rebuild in Afghanistan, warn US intel 

Earlier, top Intelligence officials in the US warned that the globally designated terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda could rebuild within a year or two in Afghanistan, turning into a major threat to American soil as the Islamist terrorists have already started to return to Kabul after the Taliban takeover. 

"The current assessment probably conservatively is one to two years for Al-Qaeda to build some capability to at least threaten the homeland," Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier said during yesterday's National Intelligence and Security Summit. As Kabul has turned into a safe harbour for the terrorist group after the US withdrawal, the timeline for the renewed security threat might be shrinking, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and United States military’s Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier warned. He reiterated that "the current assessment" of exactly when Al-Qaeda may be able "to build some capacity to at least threaten" the United States is "conservatively" just one year or maybe two.