Hundreds of foreign extremists are fleeing a months-long Pakistani military offensive and seeking sanctuary in Afghanistan, bolstering the ranks of Taliban factions and triggering one of the bloodiest starts to the spring fighting season in years, according to Afghan officials and analysts.
The growing influence of the foreign fighters, officials said, was evident over the weekend in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, where a few hundred Taliban fighters overran Afghan army posts, killing 18 soldiers. Eight were beheaded – a first by the Taliban in this region – before the insurgents vanished into the mountains with seized weapons.
“The foreign Taliban fighters beheaded the soldiers, not the local Taliban,” said Ahmad Nawid Froutan, a spokesman for the provincial governor. “In the past, the local Taliban have never committed such brutality.”
The fresh wave of foreigners, with likely ties to al-Qaeda and the ultra-violent Pakistani branch of the Taliban, has added a potential new dimension to the Afghan conflict, threatening more instability in the first year after the United States officially declared its longest war over. With most U.S. and international forces gone, the foreign fighters will further test the beleaguered Afghan security forces as they battle to fill the military gap.
In the political realm, the cross-border influx is triggering anger among Afghan lawmakers and powerbrokers, potentially tainting President Ashraf Ghani’s ongoing efforts to improve relations with Pakistan and gain its assistance in facilitating peace talks with the Taliban.
Afghans have long accused Pakistan of meddling in their affairs and of using its military and intelligence services to back the Taliban. Even with Ghani’s overtures, suspicion of Pakistan remains deep.
On Tuesday, the anger was palpable in the Afghan parliament. In a televised session, lawmakers railed at top police and military commanders for their failure to prevent the Taliban from brutally targeting their soldiers. Some believed that the foreign fighters were aligned with the Islamic State, underscoring a prevailing fear here of the extremist group, whose base is in Syria and Iraq.
“You guys are not doing your duties properly, and so you should resign,” said one lawmaker.
Gen. John Campbell, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has urged Afghan and Pakistani forces to work closer together along the border areas.
A Pakistani intelligence officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, conceded that part of the threat had migrated into Afghanistan. But the officer said Pakistan and Afghan officials have dramatically increased their communication and cooperation.
