The administration of Barack Obama gave the Pentagon permission to bomb ISIS positions in Afghanistan, The Washington Post writes, citing sources in the US Department of Defense.

American soldiers in Afghanistan, January 4, 2016 (Photo: Reuters/Pixstream)

The administration of US President Barack Obama has expanded the powers of American troops in Afghanistan, allowing them to carry out airstrikes against the positions of the Islamic State group (IS, banned in Russia), The Washington Post writes , citing statements by high-ranking sources in the military department.

According to one of the publication’s interlocutors, the new rules were approved last week. Now the US military in Afghanistan will be able to bomb IS positions, whereas previously they had the right to use aircraft only in three cases: to protect foreign forces, to help Afghan troops in clashes with the enemy and against militants of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

The new rules “will allow the United States to more actively fight ISIS in Afghanistan,” one of The Washington Post’s interlocutors noted.

According to another source of the publication, the US military has previously carried out strikes on some militants associated with ISIS in Afghanistan, but these bombings were carried out due to the identification of their “hostile intentions”, and not because of their affiliation with ISIS.

As The Washington Post notes, two militant movements are now opposing each other in Afghanistan - the Taliban and the Islamic State, and both groups are also fighting government troops.

In 2014, the NATO coalition troops led by the United States, whose number reached 130 thousand people, were withdrawn from Afghanistan. At the same time, the White House decided to maintain a contingent of American troops of 10 thousand throughout 2015 and 2016 to help the Afghan government fight the Taliban.

Earlier, The Sunday Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in September 2015 with the leader of the Taliban terrorist group banned in Russia. The newspaper referred to an unnamed Taliban field commander who, according to him, was present at the negotiations.

According to the newspaper's source, the Taliban wanted to discuss possible support from Russia. Putin, according to the publication’s interlocutor, promised the Taliban modern Russian weapons and financial assistance in exchange for cooperation that would meet Moscow’s goals. Russian authorities denied reports of Putin's meeting with a Taliban representative.

Shortly before this, the special representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, stated that the interests of Moscow and the Taliban coincide in terms of the fight against Islamic State militants. He recalled that Russia has a channel for exchanging information with the Taliban.

After this, a Taliban representative told Al Jazeera that the movement is not negotiating with Russia regarding the fight against IS and does not exchange information with it on this issue. “We are holding negotiations, but not about the fight against ISIS. We want foreign troops to leave our country, that is what we are discussing at the moment,” he said.

The Washington Post learned about the US decision to bomb ISIS in Afghanistan