TRT World, 25 June 2019
Thomas Ruttig, a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, […] also underlines the fact that similar rumours appeared in the recent past. “Repeatedly, there were reports, more likely rumours, about massive movements of IS fighters from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan. However, I’m sceptical. My organisation followed such reports in Afghanistan, and it found barely something substantial,” he said.
According to Ruttig, many similar reports are based on rumours about “mysterious fighters” who run around “wrapped up” and “never talk”. Many people conclude that such figures must be Daesh fighters.
The Afghanistan expert is also sceptical about UN reports about this issue. “Often, they just echo the information of certain governments. Some of them, like Russia but also the Afghan government, want to exaggerate the IS [Daesh] threat for good reason”, Ruttig said.
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This article was last updated on 9 Mar 2020
