US investigating Taliban's claims that it foiled an ISIS plot to kill Zalmay Khalilzad

The US is closely investigating claims by the Taliban that it foiled a plot by Islamic State (ISIS) to kill US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad.

Recently, the Taliban shared a video of two blindfolded and handcuffed men in their custody. The two men speak for six and a half minutes, saying they were recruited by ISIS for the would-be suicide mission aimed at killing Khalilzad.

In the video, the two men also confess that former Head of the National Directorate of Security Rahmatullah Nabil facilitated the failed plot against Khalilzad.

The two continue saying that they were given a member of the Taliban regime’s foreign ministry staff, Wahid Muzhda, and a journalist who was formerly a Taliban, Muhammad Hasan Haqyar as targets by a provincial official named Zia ud din and cousin of Rahmatullah Nabeel by the name of Haji Mohammed Ibrahim.

The assassins said that later they were introduced to Nabil himself, who told them about a person 'very dangerous to them and asked “do you know who this Satan is?” They were told the person is Khalizad and if he is killed then the peace process and agreement with Taliban will be derailed.

However, according to the video confession, the two assassins waited for 10 days at residence of a well-known former jihadist, Hamid Gailani, often visited by Khalilzad who showed up.

According to The Daily Beast, a US State Department spokesperson has confirmed that the US officials are investigating the video. “The US Government takes any potential threat against US personnel seriously.”