SAMARKAND, October 16. /TASS/. A number of foreign private military companies are involved in supplying resources to the affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Afghanistan, namely Wilayah Khorasan (both organizations are banned in Russia), Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting of the Council of the Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the CIS in Samarkand.
"We are observing increased activity transferring terrorist fighters from the Middle East to Afghanistan, making them available to the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Wilayah Khorasan (IS-KP). The leaders of this branch aim to establish control over the northern regions of the country with access to the CIS border. To this end, they have launched active online propaganda in Tajik, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and, notably, Kazakh languages," he noted. With help from foreign intelligence services, Bortnikov added, the network of training camps for militants is growing.
"As we see from the results of joint operational work, the aggressiveness of IS-KP activity against the republics of Central Asia and Russia is only increasing," the FSB Director stated. "The strengthening of Wilayah Khorasan benefits external players, on one hand, to undermine the Taliban’s authority, and on the other, to create a long-term hotbed of terrorist threats at the southern borders of the CIS. Considering the experience of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group’s Middle Eastern expansion, its Afghan branch will strive to enter CIS space under the slogans of building a ‘worldwide caliphate.’ This makes the current rise in the number of our citizens within the ranks of this ITO even more dangerous."
