A new United Nations report warns that al-Qaida has established eight new training camps in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and is increasingly assisting anti-Pakistan militants to launch cross-border attacks.
As per the report, the report said an al-Qaida camp in the Afghan border province of Kunar is "conducting suicide bomber training" to support operations of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist group leading attacks against Pakistani security forces.
The U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team released its findings this week, providing a fresh assessment of the threat militant groups, particularly TTP, pose to the region from their sanctuaries in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Thursday, the de facto Afghan authorities rejected the U.N. findings as "false allegations."
The report noted that the Taliban’s relationship "remains strong" with senior al-Qaida leaders, particularly with the terror group’s regional affiliate, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent or AQIS.
It found that the Taliban "are generally sympathetic to TTP aims" and have not responded to Pakistan's repeated requests to prevent cross-border militant violence, which last year alone killed nearly 1,000 Pakistani security forces and civilians.
"The short-term detention of 70 to 200 TTP members and the relocation of personnel northward away from the border areas by the Taliban were assessed as deflecting pressure from Pakistan to contain TTP," the report noted.
"Besides supplying weapons and equipment, Taliban rank and file, Al-Qaida core and AQIS fighters assisted TTP forces in cross-border attacks … Some Taliban members also joined TTP, perceiving a religious obligation to provide support."
