The Taliban has confirmed that US drones have conducted surveillance over Afghanistan’s airspace, and described it as a clear violation of the country’s sovereignty. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Monday said that these operations must not be repeated again, but did not specify the numbers of provinces where the surveillance had been carried out.
It has been reported that these drones were carried out in southern Kandahar, northeast Badakhshan, Panjshir and eastern Kunar provinces. These operations were conducted in the last three days, and Mujahid called for an immediate cessation of such reconnaissance missions by the US. “It is a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and incompatible with international law,” Mujahid said, calling on the countries giving facilities to these flights through their airspace to stop doing this.
The statement comes as Afghan masses witnessed an increase in drone surveillance operations in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, and other provinces in the last three days. The US did not react to this report so far, but the Taliban said that these operations are typically conducted for intelligence and reconnaissance purposes due to security concerns.
US drones come from Pakistan
Increasing uncertainty about drones in the Afghan sky and more discreet collaboration with the US, some sources blamed Pakistan for giving permission to the US drones to fly over Afghanistan’s airspace. A source said that US drones came from Pakistan and said the Taliban ministry of foreign affairs will talk with the Pakistani officials in this regard.
At the same time it also created doubts on the secret cooperation between US and the Taliban in the fight against Daesh, but the presence of drones over Afghan skies from Kunar to Kandahar, from Nimroz, Panjshir to Badakhshan provinces deep in northeastern Afghanistan on the border with China and Tajikistan, have unleashed confusion and so many questions.
Mujahid said that these drones were carried out for intelligence and reconnaissance missions of the US which send a message that the US is still fighting against IS-K, which supports the narrative of the Biden administration that Afghanistan should not become breeding ground of IS-K.
This comes amid a devastating bombing in Kandahar last week that resulted in the killing of dozens of people. Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack that has heightened tensions in the region, with authorities scrambling to investigate the source of the blast amidst fears of further violence.
Amidst the hasty withdrawal, there has been a concerning rise in IS-K operations across the country, a group that has already intensified its attacks, targeting both civilians and Taliban forces, mosques, shrines and has been posing a grave threat to stability and security in Afghanistan.
Taliban and US cooperating to fight against Daesh
Jan Achakzai, the former Minister of Intelligence of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, has claimed that there are reports that the Taliban’s intelligence in Kandahar has given the US a base to fly drones. Achakzai in a statement in X said that “the truth is something else” in connection with the protest of Mujahid against US aircraft patrols in Afghanistan’s airspace.
Achakzai has also said that the purpose of giving this base to the US is to cooperate in the fight against Daesh, the branch of Khorasan. He also claimed that the base was provided by the Taliban intelligence in the framework of cooperation with US contractors, but the Taliban did not comment yet on Achakzai’s statement.
This comes just days after former US president Donald Trump’s Special Assistant, Christopher Costa said that US and the Taliban should work together in order to defeat IS-K in Afghanistan.
In an article in the New York Times, Costa wrote that “the Taliban are not a reliable force to defeat IS-K or control other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, but this group should be encouraged to speed up its activities against IS-K.”
After the recent attack in Moscow concert attack that killed and wounded dozens of people, the regional countries and the world have expressed concern about the reactivation of IS-K group, and the world called IS-K a big threat to all countries.
Daesh name is being used as political tool
Taliban spokesman Mujahid said that Daesh has no ground in Afghanistan and lacks the ability to recruit and carry attacks, and said the world wants to use the name of Daesh to reach its political goals. There is no fact about recent comments on the activities of Daesh in Afghanistan, Mujahid said, adding that these comments are meant to give popularity to the group and to exaggerate Daesh.
Mujahid said that the name of Daesh is only being used for political objectives and blamed some media for spreading misinformation.
However, the South China Morning Post in its recent report said that Daesh cells have used Afghan soil to launch attacks on targets in Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey.
The report said that Daesh cells using Afghanistan as a base have closely cooperated with various national and regional branches to carry out deadly attacks on four countries this year.
Meanwhile, former Head of US Central Command, Gen Frank McKenzie said that the threat is growing and that IS-K will attack the United States and other foreign powers.
“IS-K in particular, but ISIS in general, has a strong desire to attack our homeland,” McKenzie told ABC News. “We should believe them when they say that. They’re going to try to do it, and I think the threat is growing. It began to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan and took pressure off IS-K.”
“I think we should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad,” McKenzie said. “I think this is inevitable.”
