Russian Intelligence Agency Warns of Rise in Terror Threat
MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, expects the Taliban influence in Afghanistan to grow after international coalition forces are pulled out, while rising radicalism in Syria could lead to the country’s disintegration, the GRU chief said on Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Igor Sergun said the situation in Afghanistan poses a “serious challenge to international stability” and that the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2014 could also increase the threat of terrorism and religious extremism.
“A diversified terrorist network, including suicide bomber training camps has already been established in the country and the Taliban has close links with foreign terrorist structures whose militants, having gained combat experience in Afghanistan, could be sent to other hot spots across the world,” he told an international security conference in Moscow.
The situation could get even worse if those militants resume cooperation with al-Qaida and use force to establish “a global caliphate” from Morocco to Malaysia, he said.
Sergun’s Afghanistan remarks echo those of Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an intergovernmental military alliance headquartered in Moscow and consisting of former Soviet states, who warned last Friday that after the ISAF withdrawal from Afghanistan the situation in the part of the country near Russia’s southern borders will worsen.
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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130523/181313253/Russian-Intelligence-Agency-Warns-of-Rise-in-Terror-Threat.html
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