United Nations counter-terrorism officials have warned that Afghanistan's notorious Islamic State terror group poses the biggest external terrorism threat to Europe and the rest of the world.
“Daesh-K has strengthened its financial and logistical capabilities over the past six months, including with support from the diaspora in Afghanistan and Central Asian countries,” Deputy Secretary-General for Counterterrorism Vladimir Voronkov said on Thursday.
ISIS has established bases in eastern and northern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar province which it considers its stronghold in the war-torn country. ISIS has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Afghanistan and the surrounding region in recent years.
Regional countries blame the United States and Britain for the expansion of the terrorist group Daesh in Afghanistan and rising violence across Asia.
But the risk that the Afghanistan branch would carry out terrorist attacks abroad has “become apparent,” Voronkov said, adding that the group has also stepped up its recruitment efforts.
The group confessed to the March attack on a Moscow music hall that left 145 people dead.
Austrian authorities on Wednesday detained suspects with ISIS ties for plotting an attack on a music concert in Vienna.
Austrian police said they had questioned three teenagers suspected of planning the attack at the show.
The country's Interior Minister Gerhard Kerner said intelligence agencies helped authorities unravel the alleged plot.
Organisers cancelled three concerts that were due to take place in European capitals from Thursday to Saturday.
Investigators found large amounts of chemicals, explosives and detonators at the home of the main suspect, a 19-year-old ISIS supporter.
The head of the country's intelligence agency, Omar Hajjawi Pirchner, said the young man, who was arrested on Wednesday morning in the eastern town of Telnitz, had planned to kill himself and “a number of other people.”
The latest report on the matter from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said authorities were on high alert for possible attacks during the European football championships and the Paris Olympics.
“I call on all Member States to stand united to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a hotbed of terrorist activity that affects other countries,” Mr Guterres wrote last month.
Voronkov on Thursday warned of the resurgence of Daesh's core cells in West Asia and the deteriorating situation in Africa, where Daesh West Africa province and its Sahel affiliate are “expanding and strengthening their areas of activity.”
“If these groups expand their influence, they could come under their effective control over vast swaths of land stretching from Mali to northern Nigeria,” he said, noting increased attacks by IS-affiliated groups in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
Observers claim that the US created ISIS and all other terrorist groups in West Asia to further its imperialist agenda.
The United States is using ISIS as a pretext to maintain its military presence in Syria and sees the ISIS Takfiri group as an ally in pushing for regime change in the Arab country, they say.
The remaining hotbeds of ISIS activity in Syria are areas where the United States operates military bases.
