IS recruiting members in Pakistan, Afghanistan, says US general
WASHINGTON: The commander of US forces in Afghanistan has warned that the Islamic State (IS) terror group is making recruitment in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We are seeing reports of some recruiting," said Gen John Campbell, commander of the Resolute Support mission, during an interview with the US Army Times newspaper.
"There have been some night letter drops, there have been reports of people trying to recruit both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, quite frankly."
Also read: IS may recruit locals by exploiting sectarian divide: official
The Resolute Support is the name given to the new mission of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan who are now assisting Afghan security forces.
The change, however, does not prevent them from engaging those who attack them or target major Afghan defence installations.
US and Nato forces can also combat terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Gen Campbell said the IS group, which had a "hard message to sell" in Afghanistan, but there were concerns that the group had the potential to spread its message in the country and in neighbouring Pakistan.
"The Taliban have their allegiance to Mullah Omar and a different philosophy and ideology than ISIS, but, potentially, there are people who are disgruntled with the Taliban, they haven't seen [Taliban commander] Mullah Omar in years, or they want to go a different way," he said.
Those disgruntled with the Taliban leadership could be "vulnerable to the ISIS message, and so we're looking at it very hard", Gen Campbell said.
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IS recruiting members in Pakistan, Afghanistan, says US general