The special services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) register raising activity of the branches of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) operating in Afghanistan and planning expansion to the CIS, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday
TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) The special services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) register raising activity of the branches of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) operating in Afghanistan and planning expansion to the CIS, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said on Thursday.
"We register raising activity of IS branches in Afghanistan, united as the so-called Wilayat Khorasan. Jamaat Ansarullah and the Turkistan Islamic Party are closely connected to it. They aim at creating a staging ground for expansion to the CIS territory," Bortnikov said at a meeting of the Council of the Heads of Security Bodies and Special Services of the CIS Member States.
This expansion is supposed to be conducted by militants from Central Asian republics, Bortnikov noted.
According to the FSB head, terrorists understand that they have suffered a defeat in Syria and Iraq and are therefore deploying the remaining forces outside the middle East, creating new instability zones in Asia and Africa, and forming a sleeping cell network in Europe.
First Deputy Chief of the Russian Government Staff Sergei Prikhodko said in early November that up to 10,000 IS terrorists were operating in Afghanistan, mostly in its northern and eastern territories.
