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Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says that US intelligence agencies are transferring ISIS terrorists to northern Afghanistan.

Sergei Beseda, head of the 5th FSB service, warned that the militants were transferred there to be used as a way to destabilize the region on the borders of member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and possibly in the entire Central Asia in the future.

He noted that law enforcement agencies and intelligence of CIS states should identify “dangerous trends” at an early stage. This is necessary in order to ensure security and prevent the “destructive influence of external forces.”

On September 23rd, the 16th meeting of the heads of CIS intelligence services was being chaired by the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, in Kazan. The forum is attended by delegations from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

There have been numerous reports of ‘mysterious’ helicopters extracting ISIS militants from the Middle East and their subsequent appearance at other points, notably in Northern Afghanistan.

In February 2019, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Mikhail Bogdanov said that ISIS militants were appearing in northern Afghanistan under unclear circumstances.

He said that this posed a threat to the countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

According to him, this contributes to the growing danger of the flow of the Middle East conflict into the post-Soviet space.

“There is a growing danger of Middle Eastern terrorism flowing into the post-Soviet space through the territory of Afghanistan, where, under unclear circumstances, ISIS people manage to transit through some neighboring countries,” the deputy minister said during the Valdai conference on the Middle East in Moscow.

Bogdanov also added that ISIS is settling in Libya and is strengthening ties with al-Qaeda, taking advantage of the fact that the system of government in the country is ruined.

At the same time, al-Qaeda “raises its head” in the area of the “oil crescent” along the Mediterranean coast.

It should be noted that the warning of Bogdanov was made before Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar began his offense on Tripoli to finish cleansing the country of terrorist elements.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said that ISIS fighters were massively flown by helicopters from Pakistan to the Tajik border, while Moscow did not rule out provocations of “squeezing” refugees towards Russia.

In March 2019, the head of the Main Directorate for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleg Ilinykh said that after being largely defeated by Russian, Syrian and Iraqi efforts, ISIS militants are shifting their focus to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

According to him, ISIS supporters hatched plans for the formation of sleeping cells, which could demonstrate the ability to carry out terrorist attacks around the world.

“The strategic defeat of the Caliphate in Syria and Iraq entails a shift in the interests of the Islamic State on the territory of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia,” he said.

The surfacing of ISIS militants in northern Afghanistan and along other parts of the CIS border states is no recent tendency, and attempts to create another hot point in Central Asia is becoming quite apparent. Speculation of US intelligence activities orchestrating the situation are also not appearing for the first time.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan the US peace talks with the Taliban have all but collapsed.

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