DISINFO: Al-Qaeda and ISIS are creations of UK and US intelligence services
SUMMARY
Al-Qaeda and ISIS are also creations of the US and UK special services. Afghanistan is the most affected state in this regard. To this day, these special services do not refuse to work with underground terrorist organisations in order to destabilise the situation not only in Afghanistan, but also in the entire Central Asian region.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the West’s alleged support for terrorism and attempts to destabilise the situation in Central Asia.
This message is part of a recurrent conspiracy theory alleging that the Europe and the United States control global terrorism. This message was published after the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Russia which both the US and even Iran warned Moscow in advance about. At that time, Putin dismissed these warnings as the "the intention to intimidate and destabilise".
Ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US and and Europe have been engaged in an enormous military and intelligence effort to counter Al Qaeda, ISIS and other radical Islamist terrorist groups around the world.
Regarding the Afghan scenario, ISIS-K (Islamic State Khorasan), the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, has been responsible for nearly 100 attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as roughly 250 clashes with the US, Afghan, and Pakistani security forces since January 2017.
The U.S. Department of State designated Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on 14 January, 2016, and United States Central Command has escalated its air campaign against the group since 2016 when rules of engagement expanded under President Obama and President Trump.
ISIS-K is one of the targets of Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS), a counter-terrorism operation which is part of the international US led Global War on Terrorism. In Afghanistan, the United States conducts OFS against al Qaeda, ISIS-K and their affiliates.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that Afghanistan is a security threat for Central Asia fuelled by the West; that ISIS was created and defended by the US, or that the US generated and backed Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Taliban; that the West and the US are ferrying Islamic State members to Afghanistan to use them against China; as part of a so-called “Anaconda ring”.