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IEA claims leaked document on Daesh in Afghanistan is ‘fake’
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on Sunday rejected claims that Daesh is using the country to plot and coordinate terror attacks against the US and its allies as stated in a leaked US military assessment.
The classified document reportedly portrayed the threat as a growing security concern. It noted that Afghan soil had become a base for the regional affiliate of Daesh to conduct “aspirational plotting” against US and European targets.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Sunday night called the assessment “fake” and part of “US ongoing propaganda campaign” against their government.
An official statement quoted Mujahid as saying the IEA government “has full control” over Afghanistan and does not allow anyone to use its soil for attacks against other countries.
He said that Daesh and other terrorist groups in the country “have been severely affected and are in the process of being destroyed.”
Mujahid added that the IEA had brought security to Afghanistan since regaining control of the country in August 2021, citing peaceful celebrations of the three-day, nationwide, annual Eid festival, which ended Sunday.
“It is obvious that the spread of such biased reports shows that some people in America have not forgotten their hatred and enmity with the people of Afghanistan,” he said.
The Washington Post reported the Afghanistan-related US intelligence findings, saying they are part of a trove of documents posted to the social media platform Discord and obtained by the newspaper.
“ISIS has been developing a cost-effective model for external operations that relies on resources from outside Afghanistan, operatives in target countries, and extensive facilitation networks,” the newspaper reported, citing the top-secret Pentagon secret assessment.
“The model will likely enable ISIS (Daesh) to overcome obstacles — such as competent security services — and reduce some plot timelines, minimizing disruption opportunities,” The Post reported, citing the assessment, which used an acronym for IS-K.
The leaked document reportedly detailed specific efforts to target embassies, churches, business centers and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, which drew more than 2 million spectators last November in Qatar.
The US military assessment raised the number of Daesh plots coordinated in Afghanistan from nine to 15.
Mujahid considered the publication of leaked US military documents as “self-made irresponsible claims, the work of intelligence circles”, which, according to him, “do not bode well for the Afghans.”
“Everyone should know that now the public mind is moving beyond such failed attempts,” Mujahid tweeted.
US officials have not verified the authenticity of the leaked documents.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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