Baladi - Newspapers
Hundreds of Taliban fighters are receiving advanced training from special forces at military academies in Iran as part of a significant escalation of support for the insurgents, Taliban and Afghan officials have told The Times newspaper.
The scale, quality and length of the training is unprecedented and marks not only a shift in the proxy conflict between the US and Iran inside Afghanistan, but also a potential change in Iran’s ability and will to affect the outcome of the Afghan war.
A political adviser to the Taliban at its Quetta Shura headquarters in Pakistan said: “The Iranian offer of training came with two demands: that we should put more focus on attacking American and Nato interests in Afghanistan, and devote more forces to attacking the Daesh organisation (Islamic State).
The newspaper signaled that the adviser _which it didn't name_ said: "the talks between Iran and Taliban over sending fighters for 6-months training courses started in the spring of this year, when President Trump was preparing to withdraw form the Iran Nuclear Deal."
The report stated that Taliban chose a group of its top fighters, and sent them to Iran in May, where they were received by Iranian military officials, and taken to special training camps in the province of Kermanshah, west of Iran.
Afghan intelligence officials pointed to the possibility of having other training camps, according to the report.
Taliban sources told the newspaper that Iran issued around 300 entry visas for the cadres of the movement in each of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
The newspaper cited a youth commander of Taliban, 25-years-old, who names himself Elias, as saying in an interview he made in a safe house in Afghanistan: " My training in Kermanshah started 10 days before Ramdan, and there are around 500 to 600 fighters of Taliban, and they are in different stages of training."
"We've learnt everything; such as tactical and leadership expertise, recruitment, bombs making and training on weapons," Elias added.
"All the trainers were from the Iranian special forces, and they were treating us in a nice way," he clarified.
The newspaper added that it matched these information with explanations provided by senior Afghan military officials and intelligence officials, who warned that Iran is preparing to target US interests in Afghanistan in conjunction with new US sanctions looming.
Source: BBC