UN warns Syrian fighters could relocate to Afghanistan
UNITED NATIONS: The UN secretary general’s 2025 counterterrorism report has warned that fighters who participated in the December 2024 campaign against the former Syrian government “may relocate to Afghanistan and project regional threats from there”.
The report has prompted Pakistan to call on the international community to adopt a global counterterrorism strategy.
The UN report, presented to the Security Council on Wednesday, highlights the threat posed by ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), which continues to represent one of the most serious challenges to Afghanistan and the greater South and Central Asian region, with approximately 2,000 fighters.
Speaking at the UNSC, Pakistan’s Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad described Afghanistan as “precarious” and underscored the serious threat ISIL-K poses to Pakistan’s security.
Pakistan calls on international community to adopt a global counterterrorism strategy
“Our principal adversary in the region is actively sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan. It bankrolls and supports terrorist proxies, and carries out extraterritorial assassinations,” he said.
Pakistan also warned of the dangers posed by collaboration among the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and Majeed Brigade, noting that these groups “share terrorist training camps, target strategic infrastructure and economic projects, and most tragically — ordinary citizens”.
Ambassador Ahmad described the TTP as the largest UN-designated terrorist group operating from Afghan soil, directly threatening Pakistan’s national security.
The UN report notes that nearly 3,000 fighters remain active in Syria, attempting to rebuild operational capacity and exploit local security gaps, and some of them may relocate to Afghanistan.
The report also raised concern over tens of thousands of individuals detained in camps in northeast Syria, many women and children with alleged ISIL links. Prolonged confinement in unsafe conditions risks radicalisation, prompting calls for the “safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation” of these individuals, particularly children.
UN officials warned that Daesh is increasingly exploiting digital tools and artificial intelligence to raise funds, recruit youth, and spread propaganda, creating a complex, multi-dimensional threat.
Ambassador Ahmad emphasised the need for a holistic approach to counter terrorism, addressing underlying drivers such as state oppression and occupation. He condemned collective punishment, human rights violations, demographic changes, and the misuse of counterterrorism narratives in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He stressed that terrorism must be differentiated from legitimate struggles of people against foreign occupation.
He also criticised bias in UN counterterrorism frameworks, noting that all listed individuals are Muslim while non-Muslim extremists often escape scrutiny. “It is not understandable, and indeed unacceptable, that every name on the Security Council’s terrorism lists is Muslim, while terrorists and violent extremists elsewhere escape scrutiny. This must change,” he said.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2025
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