The northern part of Afghanistan, which borders Tajikistan, has become the main haven for militants of the defeated Islamic State (IS) terror group, Qosim Bekmuhammad, an expert on Afghanistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Major actors of global politics today try to turn northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan’s areas bordering it into a bridgehead against geopolitical interests of Russian and China in the Central Asian region,” the expert said.
According to him, militants of the defeated ISIS terror group that have found a haven in northern provinces of Afghanistan could be used in that game.
“That is why Afghan government forces, which are de facto controlled by NATO, and ISAF forces do not rush to carry out special operations against IS militants in northern Afghanistan,” Bekmuhammad said.
On statements made by Afghan security officials in mid-November that the IS terror group had been “defeated” in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, the expert noted .that those statements were partially true.
“In late October–early November, Afghan government forces, under support of ISAF forces, carried out a number of successful operations against IS militants in Afghan areas bordering Pakistan. As a result, practically all groups of terrorists active in those areas were neutralized and many IS militants surrendered to the Afghan government forces,” the expert said.
Qosim Bekmuhammad is sure that such operations will not be carried out against IS militants in northern Afghanistan in the near future, “because presence of IS militants in this region meets geopolitical interests of some powers.”
