Daesh is an American phenomenon: Taliban

 Taliban appointed Governor of Kabul, Mohammad Qassim Khalid has said that the US is behind Daesh (ISIS) and that the group is an American phenomenon, according to TOLO News.

TOLO News is an Afghan news channel broadcasting from Kabul.

Khalid in a special interview with TOLO News said that he has the documents that show the US has trained Daesh. He said: “The enemies do not want Afghanistan to be calm and so they create bias through various ways. Daesh is ... produced by the US. It is a fact that Daesh is an American phenomenon.”

Khalid also denied the killing of the co-founder and second leader of al-Qaeda in the capital city of Kabul, Ayman al-Zawahiri, saying that there is no evidence to prove Zawahiri was killed in Kabul.

“The US claims that they eliminated Daesh in Afghanistan. The documents and evidence that would be valid for the media or between countries have not been provided by them,” he said, as per TOLO News.

Khalid also talked about land grabbing in Kabul, saying that 300,000 acres of land has been grabbed by various people.

“Around 150,000 acres of land is being assessed and around 100,000 acres of land has been identified,” he said.

He also urged the former Afghan officials and political leaders abroad to return to the country.

Months after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) has mangaed to expand its reach to nearly all of Afghanistan's provinces.This was stated by the U.N. mission in Afghanistan in November, reported The Washington Post.

ISIS-K has also stepped up the tempo of its attacks, carrying out suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations. It has claimed 224 attacks in Afghanistan since August 2021, 30 of which were considered significant, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a non-profit that monitors terrorist groups.A bomb blast that killed at least 21 worshipers, including an influential cleric, and injured more than 30 others in Afghanistan's capital during evening prayers on Wednesday evening, according to Taliban officials and residents, has renewed focus on the threat to the Taliban posed by Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate.

Residents of the Khair Khana area of Kabul told The Washington Post that the prayer leader who was killed, Amir Mohammad Kabuli, was an outspoken preacher unaffiliated with any one faction. (ANI)