By Fatima Adib in ToloNew, Apr 23, 2023 at 9:08 PM
The Islamic Emirate denied the report of The Washington Post saying that Afghanistan has become a significant coordination site for a Daesh group that plans attacks across Europe and Asia, and conducts “aspirational plotting” against the United States.
The Washington Post cited a “classified Pentagon assessment that portrays the threat as a growing security concern.”
“The attack planning, detailed in US intelligence findings leaked on the Discord messaging platforms and obtained by The Washington Post, reveal specific efforts to target embassies, churches, business centers and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, which drew more than 2 million spectators last summer in Qatar,” The Washington Post reported. “Pentagon officials were aware in December of nine such plots coordinated by ISIS leaders in Afghanistan, and the number rose to 15 by February, says the assessment, which has not been disclosed previously.”
The head of the Islamic Emirate’s Qatar-based Political Office, Suhail Shaheen, denied the report and said that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan.
“The report of The Washington Post is not in accordance with the ground realities in Afghanistan. These reports are made based on their personal wish. The fact is that the Daesh has no physical presence in Afghanistan as it had during the invasion,” he said.
“The Islamic Emirate is around 21 months old now. There has been no threat, not only from inside Afghanistan but also in the regional neighboring countries and there is no threat based on the Doha agreement to any country,” said Najibullah Jami, a political analyst.
“The presence and activity of Daesh inside Afghanistan, which is aiming to reach their final targets—to the neighboring countries and particularly the Central Asia — not only causes instability in Afghanistan but also in neighboring countries,” said Najeeb Rahman Shamal, political analyst.
The report comes as the Islamic Emirate recently conducted several operations against Daesh in various parts of the country, in which it said that key Daesh members were killed. https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183077
