Trained By Navy SEALs And Green Berets, Former Afghan Special Forces Join ISIS Against The Taliban

Ilustrasi pasukan khusus Afghanistan. (Wikimedia Commons/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class David Quillen/U.S Armed Forces)

JAKARTA - A number of former Afghan special forces and intelligence personnel are reported to have joined Daesh-K or ISIS-K (ISIS Khorasan), which is said to be trying to control Afghanistan into Central Asia, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing Taliban leaders, former Afghan security officials and people who know the defectors.

Former security force personnel are said to have joined terrorists for a variety of reasons, including lack of income to support themselves and their families, following the collapse of the Kabul government, fear of being hunted down by the Taliban, or in ideologically driven quests to fight control of the conservative Islamic movement in Afghanistan.

"If there is resistance, they will unite the resistance. For now, (Daesh-K) is the only other armed group," Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of Afghanistan's National Security Directorate, told WSJ, citing Sputnik News Nov. 1.

He said, for most people, joining ISIS became very attractive, after they were abandoned by the United States.

The newspaper source warned that US-trained special forces and spies could give Daesh-K "critical expertise" in intelligence gathering and combat capabilities, thereby strengthening its operations against the Taliban.

The report warns that hundreds of thousands of Afghan National Army soldiers, members of the intelligence services, police and special forces units have not been paid for months, and could be targets for recruitment by terrorists.

According to an unnamed former Afghan official, one of his former comrades, a former Afghan National Army officer who joined ISIS-K, was killed last month in a shootout with Taliban units.

The unnamed official said "several other men" he knew, all former members of the military and intelligence forces, also joined Daesh-K after the Taliban searched their homes and demanded that they appear before new authorities.

Among the defectors are members of special forces, who have been brought in and out of hotspots throughout much of the conflict to fight Taliban insurgents because regular army formations have proved ineffective. Many of these troops have training from US Navy SEALs and Green Berets.

The Taliban have long accused the US of providing support for the Taliban, and accuse Daesh-K of being a creation of Afghan intelligence agencies and their US allies. Washington and Kabul vehemently deny these accusations.

Ahmad Yasir, a senior official at the Taliban's political office in Qatar told US media last month, "there is no doubt an evil hand" the US was "behind the ISIS attack" that rocked a Shiite mosque in Kunduz on October 8, where at least 55 people were killed. killed and hundreds more injured.

Daesh-K also claimed responsibility for the August 26 Kabul airport attack, in which more than 180 people, including 13 US soldiers, were killed. The US responded with air strikes against what the Pentagon initially claimed were "high-value" terrorist targets. The military later admitted that ten civilians, including seven children and aid workers, were killed in the attack.

Last month, Taliban social media spokesman Qari Saeed Khosty told Newsweek the group would not cooperate with the US against Daesh, as the US had "helped" the terrorist group thrive.

"The Islamic Emirate does not need to cooperate with anyone to fight ISIS, because ISIS does not have popular roots in Afghanistan," Khosty said.

"As you can see, with the help of America and the help of the Kabul government, ISIS is back and growing," he added.

The 300,000-strong Afghan Security Force was crushed in mid-August after the Taliban entered Kabul, barely opening fire, as members of the government, including former President Ashraf Ghani, fled the country.

To note, the United States is said to have spent 88 billion US dollars to arm and train the Afghan military over the last twenty years.