Moscow re-equips Bishkek to counter Daesh: Russian defense minister
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says Moscow is actively re-equipping the armed forces of Kyrgyzstan to help it counter the threat posed by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group operating in Afghanistan.
Shoigu said on Wednesday that the situation in Afghanistan, which lies to the southwest of Kyrgyzstan, was deteriorating due to the appearance of Takfiri groups there.
“From our side, we are doing everything possible in order to complete the plan for rearming the Kyrgyz Armed Forces so that they can counter threats that are coming [out of Afghanistan],” Shoigu said during a meeting with Kyrgyz Chief of the General Staff Zhanybek Kaparov in Moscow.
Moscow “fully performs all that is connected with the supply of arms and military equipment, the reinforcement of Russian bases, air groups, training of the Armed forces of Kyrgyzstan in military educational institutions of Russia,” he said.
In recent months, the Daesh militant group has been making inroads into Afghanistan and Pakistan. The group is also using a sophisticated social media campaign to woo local Taliban and other militants.
“There are real threats, we see them, and I think you do, too,” Shoigu told Kaparov.
Earlier in the day, the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said that some 50 terrorist groups, including Daesh, are currently operating on the territories of the members of Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led intergovernmental military alliance, including Kyrgyzstan among other states.
The development comes as hundreds of Daesh terrorists reportedly hail from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an organization of former Soviet Republics.
In November, Russian deputy foreign minister, Oleg Syromolotov, said that more than 25,000 foreign militants, including individuals from Arab countries, Europe, Russia and CIS, are fighting on the side of the terrorist group in Syria.
A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry has also confirmed that hundreds of Chechens have joined the ranks of terrorists in Syria since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab country in 2011.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.
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