US Claims Afghan ISIS Planning Attacks Against NATO Troops

Insists Drone Strikes Were 'Necessary' to Preempt Attacks

by Jason Ditz, 

Pentagon officials today claimed that they had evidence that “individuals” in Afghanistan’s ISIS organization were planning to launch attacks against US and NATO occupation forces in the country.

They offered no details on what was actually planned, but insisted that the drone strikes earlier this week against ISIS targets were intended to preempt the attacks. They praised the strikes as accurate, but insisted they couldn’t confirm if the intended targets were actually killed.

This is a significant shift in Pentagon narrative surrounding ISIS in Afghanistan, which they’ve previously insisted was insignificant and of no real operational importance, a group of Taliban defectors relying on ISIS’s reputation in other countries for recruitment.

Some officials continue to maintain that ISIS in Afghanistan isn’t a “significant threat” to the Afghan government, though the fact that they launched drone strikes against them does suggest that they are taking them more seriously than previously admitted.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/07/10/us-claims-afghan-isis-planning-attacks-against-nato-troops/