Donald Trump claims he anticipates the arrival of a new ISIS affiliate; calls it 'ISIS-X'

Former US President Donald Trump anticipated the advent of a new Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after the Kabul Airport attack on Thursday. Speaking to Fox News, Trump lambasted his successor Joe Biden's Defence Forces retrieval policy from Afghanistan and said that the move gave birth to a new ISIS affiliate "ISIS-X."

In reality, the Former US President Trump mistakenly referred to the current blast claimant ISIS-K as ISIS-X during the interview. However, he swiftly made a twist and turned his mistake into a prediction. "They'll have an ISIS-X," he boldly asserted during the Fox News interview. The Former US President also claimed that the US army under his leadership had "knocked out 100 percent" of the ISIS militant hideouts in Afghanistan.

When asked about repeatedly-mentioned promises of US exit from Afghanistan during his tenure, Trump disclosed that he would have kept soldiers at the Bagram Airbase. "Would have blown up all the airbases but kept Bagram because it is located right near China and Iran," the Ex-Republican President explained.

Trump slams Joe Biden for Afghan policy

"This tragedy should have never been allowed to happen, which makes our grief even deeper and more difficult to understand," he continued, "May God bless the U.S.A.".

On Wednesday, Trump slammed his successor, President of the United States Joe Biden on his Afghan policy. “Biden surrendered Afghanistan to terrorists and left thousands of Americans for dead by pulling out the military before our citizens," he said. Raising concern over the refugee intake, Trump said that now thye are learning that out of the 26,000 people who have been evacuated, only 4,000 are Americans. "You can be sure, the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights," he said

Meanwhile, he also expressed condolences to kin of US personnel who were killed in Kabul twin blasts on Thursday. "Melania and I send our deepest condolences to the families of our brilliant Service Members whose duty to the USA meant so much to them," Trump said.

Trump's role in the Aghan crisis

There were just under 10,000 US military soldiers in Afghanistan when Donald Trump took the office as US president in 2017. During his tenure, he asserted that conditions on the ground would dictate any decision-making regarding the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

In the next few years, Afghanistan witnessed several Taliban-staged airstrikes. However, in February 2020, the US initiated an agreement in Doha to negotiate a complete pull-out of the American military and NATO in exchange for the Taliban's assurance to disassociate with terror groups, including the Al-Qaeda. This came to be known as the Doha Agreement, after the Qatari capital where it was signed. The initial deadline for withdrawing all US forces was then set for May 2021.

With inputs ANI

Image: AP/representative