Integrity Score 2097
No Records Found
No Records Found
No Records Found
The United Nations' special envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons has told the UN Security Council that an offshoot of ISIS in Afghanistan known as 'Daesh-Khorasan' or Islamic State of Khorasan Province is present in all the 34 provinces of the country. "Once limited to a few provinces and the capital, ISKP now seems to be present in nearly all provinces and increasingly active," Lyons said, adding that the number of the group's attacks had increased this year. (https://www.albawaba.com/news/isis-everywhere-afghanistan-un-worries-1455517)
The ISKP has carried out several attacks in Afghanistan, including the ones on the Hazara Shia community. Some of these are suicide bombings that killed over 70 people at the Sayed Abad mosque in Kunduz and 63 people at the Bibi Fatima mosque in Kandahar, both in October. (https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/25/afghanistan-surge-islamic-state-attacks-shia)
Taliban, which has been ruling Afghanistan for almost three months, has not successfully controlled the ISKP and its attacks. Of late, the Taliban has claimed that it has carried out several raids and killed many ISKP militants in their hideouts. The news has not been verified.
The Taliban was not in a position to control ISKP became clear just weeks into its rule when two blasts resulted in the death of two Taliban officials and left many injured in Jalalabad. That was one of the first attacks directly against the Taliban. In late August, the biggest suspected IS-K attack was in Kabul, killing up to 170 people, including 13 US troops. The group claimed that attack.
Although the Taliban and IS-K are opposed to each other, there are strong links between IS-K and the Haqqani network, which in turn is closely linked to the Taliban. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58333533) The Taliban now denies any links.
What has been concerning for the international community is the unabated attack against the Shia Hazara community by the ISKP. The Taliban which has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Hazara community, has promised protection. But it has failed to do that so far. Not many are hopeful of the Taliban keeping a check on the rise of ISKP.
Read more:
Will terrorism increase under the Taliban?:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/08/terrorism-to-increase-under-afghanistans-new-taliban-government.html
'The Threat of ISIS-K in Afghanistan'
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/al-qaeda-isis-k-threat-taliban-afghanistan/