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Daesh is a US product: Afghanistan's ex-president

Saturday, 06 May 2017 10:24 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 06 May 2017 12:07 PM ]

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 17, 2017.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai holds the US responsible for the rise of Daesh in his homeland, saying Washington is in cahoots with the notorious terrorist group it has created.

“Daesh is a US product,” Karzai said in an exclusive interview with the US-based Fox News network published earlier this week. “Daesh -- which is clearly foreign -- emerged in 2015 during the US presence.”

The ex-Afghan leader further said he receives regular reports of unmarked helicopters airdropping supplies to Daesh militants active on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, saying Washington “must explain this.”

Karzai further pointed to last month’s dropping of an American mega-bomb on Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, saying Washington had “coordinated” the attack with Daesh militants.

The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) -- the US military’s largest non-nuclear bomb -- was used against suspected Daesh positions in Nangarhar last month, killing nearly 100 people.

Karzai, who was president from 2004 to 2014, further said, “Daesh had already emptied most of their (families and militants) so this was coordinated. This group is just a US tool. This cannot be any other tool.”

“First, Daesh comes to drive people away and then the US comes and drops that big bomb,” he added, saying he was convinced that the use of the massive bomb “was a joint US-ISIS (Daesh) operation.”

A file photo of US military's Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB)

The former Afghan leader also told Fox News that the US “simply wants to use Afghanistan terrain to “test” its toys.

“They [America] think this is no man’s land for testing and abuse, but they are wrong about that,” Karzai said. “We have a deeply patriotic population here that will not allow this.”

The development comes as the US military mulls the deployment of thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

US media quoted a senior senator as saying Thursday that the Pentagon plans to ask for between 3,000 and 5,000 more conventional military personnel with the stated aim of advising and assisting Afghan military and police units.

The US currently maintains nearly 8,400 soldiers in Afghanistan with nearly 5,000 more troops from NATO allies.

Washington and its allies first invaded the country in 2001 as part of the so-called war on terror. The invasion removed Taliban from power, but militancy continues to this day.

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