Daesh is gaining a new foothold for its troops’ deployment in Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of the territories lost in Syria and Iraq, Col. Gen. Andrey Novikov, the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS ATC), said Tuesday.
“After the elimination of a great part of the IS [Daesh] combat core, its ‘fragments’ have been evacuated to other regions… In Afghanistan and Pakistan, a new base for IS [Daesh] deployment is now being formed to replace the ones lost in Syria and Iraq,” Novikov said at the meeting of the CIS member states’ anti-terrorist centers heads.
The US has been accused numerous times of providing various forms of support to Daesh and other terrorist groups, operating in the region.
Earlier this month, Chief of Iranian General Staff Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri accused the US of transferring Daesh terrorists to Afghanistan after the jihadist group’s defeats in Syria and Iraq.
The same month, Damascus said that US air power had been used on numerous occasions to rescue terrorist leaders from their imminent destruction at the hands of the Syrian army and even to stage ‘accidental’ attacks on Syrian forces as they advanced against the militants.
The US-coalition, however, has denied all accusations.