"Russia continues to stoke global fears about ISIS-K in an attempt to undercut the United States and Afghanistan; Russia seeks any opportunity it can find to drive a wedge between the United States and our Central Asian partners. These baseless claims about ISIS-K attempting to seize Central Asian territories are simply more propaganda," Faulkner said in a statement.
In early May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said that Daesh militants, along with other terrorists fleeing from Syria and Iraq, were bolstering their positions in northern Afghanistan, making it a new stronghold of international terrorism.
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After significant losses in Syria and Iraq, some remaining Daesh groups infiltrated into Afghanistan, where prolonged political and economic turmoil contributes to the spread of terror activity. According to Syromolotov, terrorists in Afghanistan seek to topple legitimate governments and seize territories of Central Asian countries and Russia to create a quasi-state.
