French, Algerian Fighters Join ISIS in Afghanistan

Anti-ISIS armed Afghan militia forces keep watch during ongoing clashes with ISIS fighters in Achin district of Nangarhar province on December 27, 2015. (AFP)
Anti-ISIS armed Afghan militia forces keep watch during ongoing clashes with ISIS fighters in Achin district of Nangarhar province on December 27, 2015. (AFP)
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French, Algerian Fighters Join ISIS in Afghanistan

Anti-ISIS armed Afghan militia forces keep watch during ongoing clashes with ISIS fighters in Achin district of Nangarhar province on December 27, 2015. (AFP)
Anti-ISIS armed Afghan militia forces keep watch during ongoing clashes with ISIS fighters in Achin district of Nangarhar province on December 27, 2015. (AFP)

French and Algerian fighters have joined the ranks of the ISIS terrorist group in northern Afghanistan where the militants have established new bases, multiple international and Afghan sources told Agence France Presse.

This is the first time the presence of French ISIS militants has been confirmed in Afghanistan, or at least French-speaking fighters, according to officials contacted in Kabul.

Darzab district governor Baaz Mohammad Dawar indicated that a number of Algerian and French nationals entered the ISIS-controlled district Darzab in northern Jowzjan province in mid-November.

A group of women also arrived in the district and were traveling with a translator from Tajikistan, said Dawar, adding that four of the foreigners, including two women, speak French and Arabic. They were also accompanied by eight Algerians who only speak Arabic, as well as Chechens and Uzbeks.

A number of Algerians in Darzab were in Syria and Iraq, according to Dawar.

Hundreds of French nationals originating from north Africa had joined ISIS ranks in Middle East, which is creating confusion about the nationalities of the newcomers.

Ministry of Defense spokesman Dawlat Waziri announced: “We call them Arabs, but they do not carry passports.”

One local man, who gave his name as Hajji, told AFP that he saw fighters who were of several nationalities, including French. “They were tall, in their late 20s and dressed in military clothing.”

ISIS fighters set up camp just a few hundred meters from village of Bibi Mariam and Shaher Dara.

"They ride their (motor) bikes, go to the border and come back, but they talk to nobody," Hajji added.

Another resident, Akram, also informed AFP that the town is 95 percent under ISIS control and many of the residents, especially public workers, have left the area.

Jowzjan provincial governor's spokesman, Mohammad Raza Ghafoori, said French-speaking Caucasian men and women have been seen training ISIS fighters in Darzab. He added the terrorist organization has recruited around 50 children, some as young as 10, and they have their own camp where they train on carrying out attacks.

Member of the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, Caitlin Forrest warned that ISIS is turning Jowzjan into a “logistical hub to receive and train foreign fighters as the group lost ground in Iraq and Syria” and thinks of Afghanistan as a “haven” to plan attacks on the US.

Hashar, a former district village chief, said he started seeing French fighters with their translator as of mid-November and they were training others to use suicide bombs and plant mines.

"Locals warned the fighters were also abusing natural resources, such as precious stones and uranium. They are... bringing misery to normal people," he told AFP.

A security source confirmed to AFP that French nationals have indeed arrived recently in the region, including two, who are nicknamed "The Engineers". They appeared to be organizing some sort of extraction, "but we do not know what they are looking for".

Several European services believe there is an ISIS branch in Tajikistan and fighters are arriving from there, the source said, adding that the translator’s presence with the French fighters seems to confirm that.

At least one Frenchman, 30, was arrested in July and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally entering Tajikistan. The Frenchman, who is a plumber, said he had wanted to join ISIS in Afghanistan.

The source added that two others, carrying fake French passports, were arrested at the same time.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense said that ISIS in Khorasan initially set up base in the east of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, bordering Pakistan, where a large number of fighters come from. Since then, ISIS spread to three northern provinces, Jowzjan and Faryab, and mainly Sar-e Pol, where former Taliban fighters and former members of Islamic Movement in Uzbekistan are located.

Jowzjan is the hometown of the Uzbek warlord and Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, who has been residing in Turkey since last May for “medical reasons”.

Six International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) workers were killed in an ambush in Jowzjan in February which no one claimed responsibility for.

A French government spokesman stated that there have been several rumors about French nationals fighting for ISIS in the Darzab region, but it was never proven.

On November 19, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned during a trip to Kabul against ISIS’ growing danger in Afghanistan after its defeats in Iraq and Syria.



Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks in Türkiye later this week as European countries pushed to get the Kremlin to accept their demand for a 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Trump spoke a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel to Istanbul where, he said, he would be waiting to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump told reporters at the White House that talks in Istanbul could be helpful and he might join them on Thursday while in the region. His current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.

"I've got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we've got to get it done," he said before departing for his second foreign trip since his second term in the White House began in January.

"Don't underestimate Thursday in Türkiye," he said.

In response to Trump's remarks, Zelenskiy said in a post on X: "I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting. And of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Türkiye." He added that such participation was "the right idea".

Earlier on Monday, the German government said Europe will start preparing new sanctions against Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of the day starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine.

Ukraine's military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukraine on Monday as well as an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite the ceasefire proposal by Europe and Kyiv.

"The clock is ticking," a German government spokesperson said at a news conference in Berlin.

It is not clear though how much impact fresh European sanctions would have on Russia, especially if the United States does not join in as well.

The leaders of four major European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday. Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.

The Kremlin has not responded to that latest proposal. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 - over two years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

Responding to the proposal of a ceasefire, Russia said at the weekend it is committed to ending the war but that European powers were using the language of confrontation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia was "completely ignoring" the ceasefire initiative, citing what he said were continued attacks on Ukrainian forces.

He said he shared information about the continued fighting with European partners and with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a joint phone call. The allies had agreed sanctions would be needed to pressure Russia if it snubbed the truce move.

Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show Trump that they are working towards his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

The Ukrainian military's general staff said that as of 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday there had been 69 clashes with Russian forces along the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire was to have come into effect.

The intensity of the fighting was at the same level it would be if there were no ceasefire, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the military on Ukraine's eastern front.

The Ukrainian air force said Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting from 11 p.m. (2000 GMT), an hour before the proposed ceasefire was due to kick in. Attacks of this kind unfold over the course of hours as drones fly much slower than missiles.

Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said, while the Ukrainian state railway company said a Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in the east.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the US military backing it received from Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world's biggest economy.

Europe meanwhile is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite his imposition of tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine's cause, which they see as central to the continent's security.