UN warns Daesh Afghanistan branch posing threats to Europe, beyond
A UN counter-terrorism official has warned that the notorious Daesh terrorist group in Afghanistan poses the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe and beyond.
“Daesh-K has improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months, including by tapping into Afghan and Central Asian diasporas for support,” Vladimir Voronkov, the undersecretary-general for counter-terrorism, said on Thursday.
Daesh has a foothold in eastern and northern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar, which is regarded as its base in the war-torn country. It has in recent years claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks across Afghanistan and the region.
Regional countries have held the United States and Britain responsible for the growth of the Deash terrorist group in Afghanistan and the uptick in violence across the Asian country.
But the risk of the Afghanistan branch carrying out terrorist attacks abroad has “become manifest,” Voronkov said, noting the group has also intensified its recruitment efforts.
The group claimed a March attack on a music hall in Moscow, which left 145 people dead.
On Wednesday, Austrian authorities detained Daesh-linked suspects for allegedly plotting to attack a music concert in Vienna.
Police in Austria said they had questioned three teenagers suspected of plotting an attack at the show.
Intelligence agencies helped authorities uncover the alleged scheme, according to the country’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
Organizers canceled three concerts, which were scheduled to take place in the European capital from Thursday to Saturday.
Investigators unearthed a stockpile of chemicals, explosive devices, and detonators at the home of the main suspect, a 19-year-old Daesh sympathizer.
The young man – who was arrested Wednesday morning in the eastern town of Ternitz – planned to kill himself and “a large number of people,” according to the head of the domestic intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.
In the latest report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the subject it was noted that authorities were on high alert against potential attacks during the Euro football championship and Paris Olympics.
“I call on all member states to unite to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a hotbed of terrorist activities that affect other countries,” Guterres wrote last month.
Voronkov on Thursday warned of the resurgence of Daesh’s core structure in West Asia, as well as a deteriorating situation in Africa, where Daesh West Africa Province and its Sahel branch “have expanded and consolidated their areas of operations.”
“Should these groups extend their influence… a vast territory stretching from Mali to northern Nigeria could fall under their effective control,” he said, while also noting increasing attacks by Daesh affiliates in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.
Observers maintain that the United States created Daesh and all other terrorist groups in West Asia to further its imperial agenda.
They say the US had been using Daesh as a pretext to maintain its military presence in Syria and views the Takfiri group as an ally to push regime change in the Arab country.
The main remaining hotbed of Daesh activity in Syria is now located in areas, where the US runs military bases.
Source » presstv.ir
