The former Afghan Minister of Energy and Water and one of the most powerful warlords, Ismail Khan, has warned that Afghanistan could face a war with the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) if the current situation persists without any improvement.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Khan insisted that the government should ot resolve internal differences and improve the security situation in a bid to thwart the threat by the terrorist group.
Khan further added that the supporters of the ISIS terrorist group are growing because of the government’s divisions.
“The differences that exist in the national unity government . are helping to boost the enemies’ morale, the morale of Daesh and the Taliban,” Khan told the AP, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. “This has made people really very worried.”
The remarks by Khan comes as President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani acknowledged for the first time last month that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group was gaining influence in Afghanistan.
Speaking during a press briefing ahead of his visit to United States, President Ghani said “Daesh’s characteristic is that it is man-eating. It swallows its competitors.”
“Here, it is not physical presence of people from Syria or Iraq. It is the network effect,” President Ghani added.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) militant group also released a video late last month which purportedly shows the beheading of an Afghan soldier while the group pledges allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.
The group is actively operating in northern provinces of Afghanistan and was previously operating under the shadow of the Taliban group.
In the meantime, a video emerged online earlier this month which is believed to be the first ISIS video with the group’s flag in Afghanistan, reportedly filmed in a valley not far to the south of Kabul.
