RASC News Agency: The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its 65th quarterly report, has revealed that terrorist organizations continue to operate within Afghanistan. The report stresses that the Taliban has entered into agreements with both al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). According to SIGAR’s findings, the Taliban actively supports the TTP and has permitted al-Qaeda to maintain its safe havens in Afghanistan, providing them with ongoing assistance.
The report also references a United Nations assessment, stating that 12 senior members and leaders of al-Qaeda are currently operating within Afghanistan. As outlined in the report, “The Taliban provides support to the TTP, a group whose fighters, according to the United Nations, number between 6,000 and 6,500, primarily in northeastern Afghanistan.” SIGAR emphasizes that despite the Taliban’s commitments under the Doha Agreement to combat terrorism, terrorist groups continue to operate freely within Afghanistan under Taliban control.
The report further indicates that while the Taliban has taken certain actions against the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) faction, it has allowed other “terrorist” groups, such as al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, to function with relative impunity. SIGAR asserts that the Taliban is deliberately obfuscating the truth, making false claims of no cooperation with al-Qaeda. Additionally, SIGAR underscores that the threat posed by ISIS-K has “increased,” particularly in light of the group’s attacks outside Afghanistan. However, the report also states that ISIS-K neither threatens the Taliban’s rule nor controls any significant territory within the country.
Simultaneously, the Taliban has repeatedly denied any affiliation with “terrorist” groups, including al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, insisting that these organizations do not have safe havens in Afghanistan. This assertion has been consistently challenged by international organizations and regional states, all of which have called for the severing of the Taliban’s ties with these groups.
