MOSCOW –Almost 7,000 militants and several thousand “reservists” of Daeshterrorist group (banned in Russia) are currently operating in Afghanistan,Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and the ForeignMinistry’s Director of the Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov saidThursday.

“We are following the genesis of the Afghan branch of Daesh in the lastthree years … According to our estimates, the Islamic State hasaround 7,000 active militants, not taking into account several thousandreservists,” he told Rossiya 24 television channel.

Kabulov also noted that “neither the Afghan government nor the foreigntroops deployed there” cannot detect the Islamists there.

[image: U.S. soldiers patrol the perimeter of a weapons cache four miles ofthe US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan (File)]”This is a serious matter. Daesh militants have come to Afghanistan notto launch a jihad against US troops and other foreign forces. They havearrived in the country to create a foothold with a further goalof expanding to the north, to Central Asia,” he added, saying theterrorists aim to destabilize and overthrow governments of the CentralAsian states.

The diplomat stressed that ultimately Daesh is targeting Russia, notingthat the overwhelming number of Daesh fighters in Afghanistan have arrivedthere either from Central Asia or Russia.

The always-turbulent situation in Afghanistan has worsened recentlywith the terror acts claimed by Daesh terrorists. One of the latest attacksoccurred on January 29, with gunmen killing five peoplelink>in MarshalFahim military academy in Kabul. Daesh has reportedly claimed theresponsibility for the attack.