Taliban on Saturday dismissed a new report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) that warns of the continued presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.
Hamidullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, rejected the findings in an audio message, calling the reported ISIS threat in Afghanistan “a campaign and an exaggeration.” He insisted that the Taliban has successfully suppressed ISIS-Khorasan, the Islamic State affiliate in the region.
However, Fitrat’s remarks come just weeks after an ISIS-K attack on the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Refugees in Kabul, in which Khalil Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s appointed minister, was killed along with three others.
In its latest quarterly report, SIGAR stated that ISIS-K remains a serious threat to Afghanistan and regional stability. The group has claimed responsibility for 60 attacks in 2024, including incidents in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Pakistan, and Turkey—a roughly 40 percent increase from 2023, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The SIGAR report also reaffirmed previous U.S. assessments that the Haqqani Network and the Taliban maintain close ties with Al Qaeda. The relationship between the groups has been a long-standing concern for the international community, with Western officials warning that Afghanistan could again become a safe haven for extremist organizations under Taliban rule.
