WASHINGTON – Afghanistan is in a state of political and social turmoil,with government forces fighting the ongoing Taliban insurgency, while otherextremist organizations, such as the Daesh terrorist group, have alsoexpanded their activities both in the country and in neighboring states.
The Afghan Air Force has dropped its first laser-guided bomb on a suspectedTaliban compound in the city of Farah, Operation Resolute Support said in astatement on Tuesday.
Video accompanying the statement showed the targeted building exploding.
Earlier in the day, the Central Asia and China, Regional Anti-TerroristStructure (RATS) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) DirectorYevgeniy Sysoyev said that there are up to 3,000 terrorists in the northof Afghanistan, 80 percent of them are foreign nationals, includingfighters from Russia.
“The situation in the northern provinces of Afghanistan, where nearly 3,000terrorists are reportedly concentrated, 80 percent of whom are foreigners,including fighters from Russia, Central Asia and China, is particularlyconcerning,” Sysoyev told the international conference on Afghanistanin Tashkent.
Meanwhile, Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said that thegovernment hoped that reconciliation talks with the Taliban radicalmovement would be launched in the near future.
“We have a strong hope that these negotiations with the Taliban movementthrough the relevant channels will kick off in the near future and we arelooking forward it,” Rabbani said at the international conference in theUzbek capital of Tashkent.
On February 1 Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and theForeign Ministry’s Director of the Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulovstated that about 7,000 militants and several thousand “reservists” of Daeshlink>arecurrently operating in Afghanistan.
Previously, in November 2017, residents and the administrationof Afghanistan’s northern provinces spotted French-speaking Daeshterrorists. For instance, Mohammad Dawar, the head of the Darzab districtof the Jawzjan province, told Sputnik that citizens of France and Algeriawere operating in the region. Dawar’s assumption about the presenceof French citizens on the ground was later confirmed by representativesof the national security service in Kabul.
Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate as themilitants of the Taliban radical movement are active on 70 percent of theAfghan territory, fully controlling 4 percent of the nation anddemonstrating presence in another 66 percent, a BBC studylink>conductedon August — November 2017 found. In addition, the research reveals thatthat the number of districts with Taliban’s presence has increasedsince the mission carried out by the United States and its alliesin Afghanistan ended in 2014 and the foreign troops were formally withdrawnfrom the country.
The Taliban is a fundamentalist movement which seeks to enforce the ruleof Islamic law in Afghanistan. The group emerged in 1994 during the civilwar in the country and held power on the most part of the Afghan territoryin the period from 1996 to 2001. The Taliban is listed as a terroristorganization by the UN Secvurity Council, Russia and the US. One of themain sources of income for terrorists is the drug trade: the countrysupplies almost 80 percent of the world’s opiumlink>.A record of almost 10,000 tons of opium was produced just in 2017.