About 3,500 Islamic State fighters active in Afghanistan - Russia’s General Staff

MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. About 3,500 fighters have joined the Islamic State (terrorist organization outlawed in Russia) in Afghanistan and terrorists are planning to at least double this figure by next year, Head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Department Igor Korobov said on Wednesday. "Special alarm is caused by the strengthening of the positions of the ISIL [the former name of the Islamic State] in Afghanistan. At the current stage, the Islamists’ ranks number about 3,500 fighters and by 2018 they intend to at least double their numerical strength," he said. Islamic State terrorists have especially gained a stronghold in the east of Afghanistan, he said. "Up to 1,500 Islamists are concentrated in the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar. In northern districts, their number is approaching 1,000 fighters. About another 1,000 Islamists are operating as part of relatively small groups actually in all the remaining part of the territory of Afghanistan," Korobov said. Militants who have fought as part of a grouping in the Middle East are normally dispatched to the country’s north and west," he noted. "Up to 50 percent of ISIL fighters are foreigners, among whom no less than 70 percent are natives of Central Asia," the general said. The IS leaders are trying to sign peace deals with the Taliban movement or at least to define the zones of influence but they have failed in this effort so far, the Russian general said. Read more