Kabul, Afghanistan:
As desperate Afghans crowd Kabul airport attempting to get on any evacuation flights to flee the Taliban, officials have warned of yet another jihadist threat: the ISIS group.
President Joe Biden mentioned there is “an acute and growing risk” of an attack at the airport by the group’s regional chapter, known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K.
The United States, Britain and Australia have told folks to leave the region for safer places.
When asked straight about the threat, a Taliban spokesman acknowledged a threat of “nuisances” causing problems in a chaotic predicament they blamed completely on the US-led evacuation.
What is ISIS-Khorasan?
Months soon after ISIS declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014, breakaway fighters from the Pakistani Taliban joined terrorists in Afghanistan to kind a regional chapter, pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group was formally acknowledged by the central ISIS leadership the next year as it sunk roots in northeastern Afghanistan, specifically Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan provinces.
It also managed to set up sleeper cells in other components of Pakistan and Afghanistan, like Kabul, according to United Nations monitors.
Latest estimates of its strength differ from numerous thousand active fighters to as low as 500, according to a UN Security Council report released last month.
“Khorasan” is a historical name for the area, taking in components of what is today Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
What sort of attacks has it carried out?
ISIS’s Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been accountable for some of the deadliest attacks of current years.
It has massacred civilians in each nations, at mosques, shrines, public squares and even hospitals.
The group has specifically targeted Muslims from sects it considers heretical, like Shiites.
Last year, it was blamed for an attack that shocked the world — gunmen went on a bloody rampage at a maternity ward in a predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul, killing 16 mothers and mothers-to-be.
Beyond bombings and massacres, IS-Khorasan has failed to hold any territory in the area, suffering large losses due to the fact of Taliban and US-led military operations.
According to UN and US military assessments, soon after the phase of heavy defeats IS-Khorasan now operates largely by way of covert cells based in or close to cities to carry out higher-profile attacks.
What is ISIS-Khorasan’s relationship with the Taliban?
While each groups are hardline Sunni terrorists, there is no enjoy lost among them.
They have differed on the minutiae of religion and method, even though claiming to be the accurate flag-bearers of jihad.
That tussle has led to bloody fighting among the two, with the Taliban emerging largely victorious soon after 2019 when IS-Khorasan failed to safe territory as its parent group did in the Middle East.
In a sign of the enmity among the two jihadist groups, IS statements have referred to the Taliban as apostates.
How has ISiS reacted to the Taliban victory in Afghanistan?
Not nicely.
ISIS had been hugely crucial of the deal last year among Washington and the Taliban that led to the agreement for withdrawing foreign troops, accusing the latter of abandoning the jihadist lead to.
Following the Taliban’s lightning takeover of Afghanistan, a quantity of jihadist groups about the world congratulated them — but not ISIS.
One IS commentary published soon after the fall of Kabul accused the Taliban of betraying jihadists with the US withdrawal deal and vowed to continue its fight, according to the Web-site Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist communications.
What is the threat at Kabul airport?
US officials say Kabul airport, with thousands of US-led foreign troops surrounded by large crowds of desperate Afghans, is beneath higher threat from IS-Khorasan.
A flurry of close to-identical travel warnings from London, Canberra, and Washington late Wednesday urged folks gathered in the region to move to safer places.
They have not supplied any distinct facts about the threat.
“ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, and they have a history of fighting one another,” Biden mentioned Sunday.
“But every day we have troops on the ground, these troops and innocent civilians at the airport face the risk of attack from ISIS-K.”
Some military transports taking off from Kabul airport in current days have been seen launching flares, which are typically used to attract heat-in search of missiles.
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