Just months after the United States signed a controversial deal with the Taliban to end the long-standing war in Afghanistan, based on the idea that the insurgent group would not offer refuge to al Qaeda, local officials fear that the terrorists continue to reign in some parts of the country. country.
According to Afghan news outlet Tolo, Yasin Khan, the governor of the southern province of Helman, has pointed to a growing al-Qaeda footprint in the district along the Durand line with Pakistan, as well as border pockets between Afghanistan and Iran. . Helmand has long been a bloody battlefield for American and Afghan troops, and has become a Taliban fortress.
“The governor of Helmand said he was concerned that the Taliban would not cut ties with Al Qaeda and other foreign fighters,” Tolo reported Friday, citing several officials who claimed that “there is a presence of al Qaeda and other foreign fighters ranging from from the Disho district of Helmand to some districts in Herat, “an area spanning many miles.
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Khan also emphasized that Al Qaeda currently has a presence in the Bahramcha region of the Disho district of Helmand towards Herat province and that its operatives “are providing training and support to the Taliban,” in addition to supplying materials.
File: Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
(AP)
Other senior Afghan military officials said the Taliban have “changed tactics” in recent weeks, relying on imports of material from outside the country to make their own mines and shells.
However, the United States government has promised to continue moving forward with the Taliban agreement signed in February. The deal involves the withdrawal of US troops on the ground, even as Afghanistan continues to be rocked by high levels of violence, maintaining the highest number of deaths from terrorism worldwide.
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There were almost 8,500 terrorist attacks worldwide in 2019, killing more than 20,300 people; About 5,460 were known perpetrators, and 14,840 were victims, according to a report earlier this month from the University of Maryland National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).
Afghan security personnel inspected the scene of a car bomb blast at an intelligence complex in Aybak, the capital of northern Afghanistan’s Samangan province, on July 13. Taliban insurgents launched a complex attack on the complex that started with a suicide bombing, authorities said. (AP Photo)
According to the data, the number of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan increased by 2 percent between 2018 and 2019. The number of victims killed in the Taliban attacks increased by 9 percent between 2018 and 2019, “essentially maintaining the escalation that has taken place in Afghanistan in recent years. “
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“While the Taliban entered into peace talks with the United States, Afghanistan experienced 21 percent of all terrorist attacks worldwide in 2019, and 41 percent of all people killed in terrorist attacks (including assailants) in 2019 were killed in Afghanistan, “the report supposed. “The Taliban in Afghanistan were responsible for more terror attacks in 2019 than any other group by a wide margin, and those attacks resulted in more deaths than the next ten deadliest perpetrator groups combined.”
