ISIS paying $500 monthly to Afghan unemployed youth for new profession "terrorism"
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As unemployment worsens in strife-torn Afghanistan, the Islamic State has arrived to help the jobless with a lucrative new profession: terrorist.
The insurgent group has made significant headway in Afghanistan and is recruiting local villagers, as well as its enemy -- the Taliban -- to paid jobs in order to expand its influence across the north, according to local Afghan officials.
Hundreds of local villagers from remote areas of the Faryab and Jawzjan provinces and several Taliban commanders with more than 300 fighters have pledged allegiance to ISIS in the past six months, Mohammad Sami Khairkhowah, the head of provincial council of Faryab said by phone. They are paid above $500 monthly, thrice the wage of a government soldier, he said.
Several Afghan lawmakers confirmed the issue and expressed deep frustration over government's inability to stop it. The group is recruiting people "openly and publicly" in the region, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, the speaker of lower house of parliament, told lawmakers in a June session.
The revelations come as U.S. President Donald Trump struggles to define an Afghanistan policy and weighs an increase in troop levels in Afghanistan. U.S. generals have recommended adding as many as 5,000 troops to about 8,400 already there to train and assist Afghan forces. Defense Secretary James Mattis told American lawmakers in June the U.S. is not winning the 16-year-long war.
The insurgent group has made significant headway in Afghanistan and is recruiting local villagers, as well as its enemy -- the Taliban -- to paid jobs in order to expand its influence across the north, according to local Afghan officials.
Hundreds of local villagers from remote areas of the Faryab and Jawzjan provinces and several Taliban commanders with more than 300 fighters have pledged allegiance to ISIS in the past six months, Mohammad Sami Khairkhowah, the head of provincial council of Faryab said by phone. They are paid above $500 monthly, thrice the wage of a government soldier, he said.
Several Afghan lawmakers confirmed the issue and expressed deep frustration over government's inability to stop it. The group is recruiting people "openly and publicly" in the region, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, the speaker of lower house of parliament, told lawmakers in a June session.
The revelations come as U.S. President Donald Trump struggles to define an Afghanistan policy and weighs an increase in troop levels in Afghanistan. U.S. generals have recommended adding as many as 5,000 troops to about 8,400 already there to train and assist Afghan forces. Defense Secretary James Mattis told American lawmakers in June the U.S. is not winning the 16-year-long war.
