Pakistan, Iran aiding Afghan Taliban: US

WASHINGTON: The US military commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal says he has evidence that factions of Pakistani and Iranian spy services are supporting insurgent groups that carry out attacks on coalition troops, the Los Angeles Times said in a report.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have assistance from ‘elements of some intelligence agencies,’ McChrystal wrote in an analysis of the military situation presented to the White House earlier this month.

The analysis said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence as well as the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are among the external forces trying to undermine US interests in Afghanistan.

A declassified version of McChrystal’s assessment was published Sunday on the Washington Post website, LA Times said.

Pakistan’s criticism is a delicate issue due to the US’s close cooperation with Islamabad in pursuing militants and carrying out drone airstrikes in the country’s tribal regions.

‘Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan,’ McChrystal wrote, adding that senior leaders of important Taliban groups are ‘reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's ISI.’

McChrystal's assessment is the first public indication in months that the United States still sees signs of ISI support for the Taliban. Experts said elements of the ISI maintain those ties to hedge against a US withdrawal from the region and rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.

‘There is a mixture of motives and concerns within the ISI that have accounted for the dalliances that have gone on for years’ with insurgent groups, said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA counter-terrorism official.

McChrystal's report said Tehran has played ‘an ambiguous role in Afghanistan,’ providing developmental assistance to the government even as it assists insurgent groups that target US troops.

‘The Iranian Quds Force is reportedly training fighters for certain Taliban groups and providing other forms of military assistance to insurgents,’ McChrystal said in the report.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the assistance, but Iran has been a transit point for foreign fighters entering Pakistan. Experts also cited evidence that Iran has provided training and technology in the use of roadside bombs.

US intelligence officials said Iran appears to regulate its involvement to tie down US and coalition troops without provoking direct retaliation.

Iran's aim ‘is to make sure the US is tied down and preoccupied in yet another theatre,’ said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. ‘From Iran's point of view, it's an historical area of interest and too good an opportunity to pass up.’