US colluded with IS in Afghanistan: Karzai

Kabul [Afghanistan], Nov 11 (ANI): Former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has accused the United States of colluding with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in his country.

"In my view under the full presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh [ISIS] has emerged," Karzai said in an interview to Al Jazeera.

Karzai said that the US allowed Daesh (Arabic name of the IS) to flourish inside Afghanistan.

The Trump administration made IS as an excuse to drop a massive bomb in Afghanistan on April 2017, he said.

"And the next day, Daesh takes the next district in Afghanistan. That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the US] in Afghanistan," the former Afghan leader added.

The US military had dropped a GBU-43, most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province in April.

The explosive, also known as the "mother of all bombs" (MOAB), was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area, the report said.

Meanwhile, in the interview, Karzai also said that he welcomed a recent call by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate war crimes in Afghanistan, including those committed during his tenure in office. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI