Taliban warn ISIS against parallel war in Afghanistan

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© Jalil Rezayee, EPA
The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday warned the leader of the extremist Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, against waging a parallel insurgency in Afghanistan.
"The jihad in Afghanistan must be conducted under one flag and one leadership against the invading Americans and their servants," the Taliban said in a statement on their website, according to dpa.
"Attempts to establish separate jihadi rank or leadership other than the Islamic Emirate [official name for the Taliban movement] will create division and dispute," said the statement, signed by the group's deputy leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor.
The Taliban "on the basis of religious brotherhood asks for your goodwill and we don't want to see interference in our affairs."
Islamic State has seized vast areas in northern Syria and Iraq. Last week, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned the Sunni extremist group had global ambitions.
The group has branches in Libya, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, Abbott said, and is trying to establish a presence in South Asia.
In Afghanistan, several jihadi groups are currently engaged in the conflict against the administration in Kabul, but most of them fight jointly under the Taliban umbrella.
The letter is a departure from the past, since the Taliban largely settled scores without making public their fights with competing factions.
It also comes amid reports of fighting between the Taliban and their breakaway factions who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
The Afghan Interior Ministry earlier this week said that the number of such fighters remain small, but they were recruiting and seeking financial support.
The Taliban have been fighting against the government and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO allies since their ouster in a United States-led invasion in 2001.
Also Tuesday, Afghan government officials and representatives from the Taliban political office were meeting at a forum in Norway, officials said, adding the two sides would not hold formal talks.          

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