KABUL -- Afghanistan is preparing for an influx of defeated Central Asian militants from the Mideast as the "Islamic State" (IS) crumbles, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)'s Gandhara blog reported last week.
"Porous borders" could help some Central Asian militants fleeing Iraq and Syria reach Afghanistan, an Afghan diplomat who requested anonymity told Gandhara.
That contingent comprises "a sizeable part of the core IS military machine in Iraq and Syria", according to Gandhara.
Central Asian militants who fled Pakistan in 2014, when the Pakistani army launched the counter-insurgency Operation Zarb-e-Azb, "are already responsible for some of the instability in northern Afghanistan", said the diplomat. Combined with compatriots who arrive from Iraq and Syria, they could "pose a great danger" to Afghan neighbours like Turkmenistan, he said.
"Most of the IS trainers now active in Darzab [Jawzjan Province] are Uzbekistanis," Baz Mohammad Dawar, governor of Darzab District, told Gandhara. "They are training children and have shut down schools."
Jawzjan province borders Turkmenistan.
Delegations of predominantly Uzbekistani IS militants visited Afghanistan in June to discuss co-ordination between IS's core Mideast operation and IS-Khorasan Province (the IS wing in Afghanistan and Pakistan), said Dawar.
