ISIS Most Serious Threat To Afghanistan And Region, States UN Report
In a report to the United Nations Security Council, Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said that ISIS has increased its "operational capacity" in Afghanistan and is a serious threat to Afghanistan and the region.
The report expressed concerns over ISIS’ access to NATO weapons and the weapons transfer to regional countries.
Although the Taliban has always emphasised that ISIS has been suppressed in Afghanistan, the UN report said that ISIS in Afghanistan is more "skilled" in its attacks against the Taliban than in the past, and their focus is on eliminating high-ranking Taliban officials.
The report stated, "Attacks against high-profile Taliban figures in Balkh, Badakhshan, and Baghlan provinces raised ISIL-K morale and boosted recruitment.”
In this report, the number of ISIS forces in Afghanistan has been estimated to be 4,000 to 5,000 fighters.
In this report, the member countries expressed concerns over the danger of the weapons left by NATO for the security of the countries in the region. These governments think that a large amount of these weapons can be transferred to the regional countries by ISIS and groups affiliated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
In response to this report, one of the Taliban spokespersons said that these weapons have not fallen into the hands of other groups.
This is the 17th report of the Secretary General of the United Nations to the Security Council over the threat of ISIS, which was prepared by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of this Council on August 12.
