Afghan security chief warns of "connections" between foreign extremists and the West
Kabul, Afghanistan — A U.S. airstrike killed a major ISIS recruiter in eastern Afghanistan. No other details are known, but this comes as ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban are all increasing their attacks in Afghanistan.
The Taliban may have doubled down on their efforts to gain leverage over the U.S. in recent talks, but Brigadier General Khoshal Sadat told CBS News they paid a heavy price.
"We inflicted a huge amount of casualties, it's been unprecedented. Within a matter of hours, hundreds of them just gone," Sadat said.
The country's top security chief issued a sober warning to Americans.
"We have seen connections, communications between ISIS fighters and some al Qaeda here and Europe and the United States," Sadat said.
Contact between ISIS and al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan and the U.S. is the very reason why U.S. forces invaded the country in the first place. The mission then and now, is to destroy Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Eighteen years on, that terrorist group is still in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has promised to never again harbor America's enemies, but National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib said that's a non-starter.
"In their ranks today there are all kinds of terrorists fighting from all around the world. They have Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs, Pakistanis, you name it," he said.
Mohib warns those same terrorists responsible for such bloodshed in Afghanistan would extend their reach far from these battlefields in a heartbeat.