In a statement delivered at a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov stated on October 11 that the priority goal of terrorists is to seize power in Central Asia’s countries.
First of all, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are prone to the danger, Bortnikov noted.
“These are the countries that international terrorist organizations expect to include in the so-called global caliphate,” the Russian chief security officer was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
"We are noting the growing role of Al-Qaeda, which together with a local IS affiliate, Wilayat Khorasan (outlawed in Russia), is actively participating in providing training, indoctrination and material and technical support for groups under their control," Bortnikov pointed out.
According to him, Al Qaeda now has more than 1,500 militants. This terrorist organization is reportedly most active in more than twenty provinces of Afghanistan, mainly in the southeast of the country, and the Nurestan province serves as a transport corridor between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
“Meanwhile, the number of militants of Wilayat Khorasan active throughout the northern border region and the center of the country reaches 6,500 people,” Bortnikov said.
He, in particular, noted the active role of American and British intelligence services in fomenting a "belt of instability" in Afghanistan near the southern borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) terrorist groups (outlawed in Russia) are being reinforced.
"The US and British intelligence services are playing the leading role in destabilizing the situation in the vicinity of Afghanistan. The CIA and MI6 are restoring their intelligence presence in a number of Afghanistan’s key provinces. The possibility of re-establishing US bases in the country is being considered," he stressed.
"The main efforts are focused on shaping ‘the belt of instability’ on the CIS’ southern borders. Toward this end, recruitment is underway of militants from international terrorist organizations operating in Iraq, Syria, and a number of other Asian and African countries, as well as their redeployment to Afghanistan’s north. At several training camps, the bandits are trained to use modern weapons, including from the arsenals left behind by the Western coalition, drones, and cutting-edge means of communication and reconnaissance," the FSB chief said.
