New images purporting to show an Islamic State (IS) training camp in Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border, have surfaced on the internet, indicating that the Middle east-based terror group is making inroads into South Asia.
According to Fox News, the pictures were obtained by a Pakistani journalist earlier this month and published by the military blog, ‘The Long War Journal.’
Pakistani journalist Saleem Mehsud had originally posted the photos on his Twitter page on April 18, but could not divulge details about their origin.
Two of the three images show fighters standing in formation with assault rifles in front of armored SUVs draped in the extremist group’s “black standard” flag. A third image shows a pickup truck with a heavy machine gun turret mounted in the bed.
The photos are believed to have been taken in the “Ustad Yasir” camp in Eastern Afghanistan’s Logar Province, which is operated by the Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas Front, a group named after an Al Qaeda leader who was killed in a U.S. air strike in 2011.
The camp is named after a key Taliban ideologue and top recruiter who was one of the two dozen senior and mid-level leaders killed in a 2012 attack.
The photos, however, have raised questions about who the fighters are and how closely they are aligned with the IS leadership in Syria and Iraq.
Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis for the global intelligence firm Stratfor, said the fighters could be disaffected former Taliban fighters and not core IS jihadists as the camp is named after an accused Taliban turncoat. (ANI)