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CSTO sees rising number of IS fighters on Tajikistan’s southern border - Joint Staff chief

Andrey Serdyukov, CSTO Joint Staff Chief

14 February 2024 14:03 (UTC +04:00)

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is seeing an increase in the number of Islamic State (IS, banned in Russia) militants near Tajikistan's southern border, CSTO Joint Staff Chief Andrey Serdyukov said at a briefing, APA reports citing TASS.

"The main threat to the stability in Central Asia comes from international terrorist and extremist organizations, namely the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda and others," he said. "In particular, an increase in the number of [militants of] the Afghan Islamic State-Khorasan Province and the Pakistani Taliban movement is being recorded near Tajikistan’s southern border.

The network of field training camps for such groups is also expanding. Moreover, the main contingent of foreign fighters is concentrated in the northern provinces of Afghanistan.