A top Russian security official has claimed that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group’s offshoot in Afghanistan has amassed at least 5,000 fighters close to Central Asian Republics (CARs) border in North of Afghanistan.
The director of Russia’s FSB Alexander Bortnikov made the remarks during a meeting with the ex-Soviet intelligence services in Dushanbe, according to Russia’s RT Television network.
“Especially worrying is re-deployment of terrorist groups into northern provinces of Afghanistan,” Bortnikov said.
He warned that ‘Wilayat Khorasan’, a local Islamic State affiliate, had managed to gather 5,000 fighters in the area.
Terrorist cells are now infiltrating into former Soviet countries where they are forming ties with organized crime. To keep a low profile, they try to pose as refugees and migrants, according to Bortnikov.
ISIS fighters have suffered a series of defeats in Syria and Iraq, but they still remain a danger. “Now they are trying to regroup in areas which Syrian government doesn’t control, or hide out in refugee camps,” the FSB chief noted.
Another alarming trend is that terrorist groups are relocating their forces to other parts of the world, including Northern Africa and Southeast Asia.
Despite military losses, terrorist organizations are accumulating massive foreign funding to prepare for attacks “all around the world.” Notably, they resort to cryptocurrencies and online payment services to receive money from abroad. Revenues from “illicit oil trade, human trafficking and other criminal activities” also are used by terrorists to stay afloat.
Last month, the FSB director warned of IS militants returning to their countries of origin and creating terrorist cells at home. More than 1,500 of 5,000 jihadists from Europe who earlier joined IS managed to return from the Middle East, Bortnikov said at the time.
This comes as a US official had earlier told AFP that ISIS terrorists are heading to Afghanistan to continue their jihad and plot ‘spectacular’ attacks against the United States.
“We know some have already made their way back here and are trying to transfer the knowledge, skills and experience they learned over there,” the official speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP late in April.
The official further added that “If we don’t continue counterterrorism pressure against (IS in Afghanistan), there will be an attack in our homeland — and a spectacular attack — probably within the year.”
