UN says ISIS, Resistance Front to intensify attacks on Taliban to control Afghanistan

The National Resistance Front and ISIS would continue their assaults against the Taliban as they aim to solidify their control over Afghanistan, according to a report by Washington Post. The report said that ISIS and the "guerrilla attacks by former Afghan government security personnel" have been the primary threat to Taliban. It added that Al-Qaeda will be unable to carry out foreign assaults and activities by 2023 with or without Taliban help, highlighting Taliban's close links to the extremist terror outfit.

According to a United Nations report, "The relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda remains close, with the latter celebrating the former's success and renewing its pledge of allegiance to (Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada)", as per Washington Post.

In addition to this, UN experts asserted that the Taliban have recruited approximately 41 wanted foreign offenders, whose names are there on the organisation's blacklist to fill key positions. Meanwhile, the UN claimed that the Taliban are more interested in gaining power rather than fixing Afghanistan's issues.  

Further, in a report to the United Nations Security Council, experts warned that as the weather improves, violence might intensify as both Islamic State and opposition groups conduct operations against Taliban troops, Associated Press reported. 

Al-Qaeda enjoys a "safe haven" under the Taliban: Report

The Member State estimation suggests that Al-Qaeda enjoys a "safe haven" and enhanced "freedom of action" under the Taliban. Since August, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda since June 2011 -- who succeeded Osama bin Laden following his death, has sent out additional recorded messages, and there is now confirmation of his existence as recently as February 2022, citing the report, Tolo News reported. The report also predicted the existence of "180 to 400" Al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters in "Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, Nimruz, Paktika, and Zabul provinces" from countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan. 

Experts stated in the report released on Monday that terrorists affiliated with both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) are making progress in Africa, particularly in the tumultuous Sahel. IS, they claimed, continues to operate in Iraq and Syria "as an entrenched rural insurgency".

It is to mention that Taliban had published a statement disputing a UN report that it has "close" ties with Al-Qaeda and that foreign entities are present in Afghanistan. 

(Image: AP/PTI)