WASHINGTON – Fearful that Islamic State fighters – many from the North Caucasus – will return to their homeland and wage jihad in the Russian Federation, Moscow now is focusing its military action in Syria on killing those potential sources of bombings, shootings and massacres, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

But a Russian official has told G2 Bulletin that there is another, more immediate, concern – of jihadist fighters coming from Afghanistan and infiltrating Russia through Central Asia.

And a U.S. military intelligence source independently has confirmed to G2 Bulletin what the Russian official said, because he’s already seeing the Russians taking action to make sure there is a buffer between ISIS in Afghanistan and Russia.

That would be by exerting its influence in the northern part of the country.

Both officials insisted on anonymity to speak about the issue.

“Our concern is that ISIS is increasing in Afghanistan and could enter through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and then through Kazakhstan where the borders are virtually unprotected,” the Russian official said.

The Russian said ISIS is training militants from Russia in Afghanistan and there are an increasing number of foreign fighters providing the training. He added that among the captured or killed ISIS fighters, some had American and British passports.

Get the rest of this report and others from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

And he said there also are instructors from Arab countries and Pakistan to train people from Central Asia and the North Caucasus region of Russia.

The Kremlin estimates that there are some 3,500 ISIS militants now in Afghanistan, with that number quickly rising.

The concern also has been the speed at which ISIS showed up in Afghanistan, starting only a year ago, turning the jihadist fighters a high-priority threat.

Russian Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who heads the Russian general staff, estimates that there are some 50,000 fighters in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban number some 40,000 in Afghanistan and are Sunni Muslims, like ISIS, and have begun to join ISIS ranks, officials said.

At a recent conference in Moscow, RT reported that Col. Gen. Igor Sergun, who heads Russia’s main intelligence directorate of its military intelligence agency, said ISIS is using the worsening of the political situation in Afghanistan to strengthen its position.

“We estimate that ISIS gets new troops by bribing field commanders of Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and other radical religious organizations operating on Afghan territory,” Sergun said.

Get the rest of this report and others from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

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