‘U.S. Military Propping Up Daesh in Afghanistan’
KABUL (Dispatches) – The U.S. military has been allowing Daesh terrorists and their weapons into Afghanistan following the terrorist group's recent defeats in Syria and Iraq, a new report suggests.
According to the report by the Economic Times, while Afghanistan’s skies remain under full control of American and NATO forces stationed in the country, sources are claiming that weapons are often being transferred to the country by helicopters that bear no identifying insignia.
The report estimated that around 10,000 members of the terrorist group were present in Afghanistan and the number was growing on Washington’s watch.
The suspected ties between Daesh and the U.S. military in Afghanistan is nothing new.
On April 11, 2017, the U.S. military dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), dubbed the "mother of all bombs", on alleged Daesh hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, killing nearly a hundred people, whom the U.S. insists were all militants.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai told Al Jazeera in 2017 that the U.S. was colluding with Daesh in Afghanistan and helping it cement its grip on areas in the eastern parts of the country.
"In my view, under the full [U.S.] presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh has emerged,” he said. "And for two years, the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done.”
Karzai further noted that America had specifically used Daesh as an excuse earlier that year to drop the largest non-nuclear bomb ever built in Afghanistan.
"And the next day, Daesh takes the next district in Afghanistan," he said. "That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the U.S.] in Afghanistan."
Daesh’s rise in Afghanistan comes at a time when the Trump administration is engaged in peace talks with the Taliban militant group, claiming that the war -- which began in 2001 -- has run its course and it is time to bring US troops back home.
Today, around 14,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, half of them assigned to what Washington insists are counter-terrorism missions.
The Taliban's five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end following the 2001 US-led invasion, but 17 years on, the militant group has mounted a comeback.
According to an official U.S. report last year, the central government in Kabul is currently controlling a little more than 50 percent of the country, down from 72 percent in 2015.
People inspect the site of a bombing outside a voter registration center in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 22, 2018.
According to the report by the Economic Times, while Afghanistan’s skies remain under full control of American and NATO forces stationed in the country, sources are claiming that weapons are often being transferred to the country by helicopters that bear no identifying insignia.
The report estimated that around 10,000 members of the terrorist group were present in Afghanistan and the number was growing on Washington’s watch.
The suspected ties between Daesh and the U.S. military in Afghanistan is nothing new.
On April 11, 2017, the U.S. military dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), dubbed the "mother of all bombs", on alleged Daesh hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, killing nearly a hundred people, whom the U.S. insists were all militants.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai told Al Jazeera in 2017 that the U.S. was colluding with Daesh in Afghanistan and helping it cement its grip on areas in the eastern parts of the country.
"In my view, under the full [U.S.] presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh has emerged,” he said. "And for two years, the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done.”
Karzai further noted that America had specifically used Daesh as an excuse earlier that year to drop the largest non-nuclear bomb ever built in Afghanistan.
"And the next day, Daesh takes the next district in Afghanistan," he said. "That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the U.S.] in Afghanistan."
Daesh’s rise in Afghanistan comes at a time when the Trump administration is engaged in peace talks with the Taliban militant group, claiming that the war -- which began in 2001 -- has run its course and it is time to bring US troops back home.
Today, around 14,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, half of them assigned to what Washington insists are counter-terrorism missions.
The Taliban's five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end following the 2001 US-led invasion, but 17 years on, the militant group has mounted a comeback.
According to an official U.S. report last year, the central government in Kabul is currently controlling a little more than 50 percent of the country, down from 72 percent in 2015.
People inspect the site of a bombing outside a voter registration center in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 22, 2018.