It was only a few days ago that terrorists launched an attack at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. troops and 75 Afghan civilians causing many to wonder who was responsible for the attack. Unfortunately, it was not too longer before a group calling themselves the Islamic State – Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an offshoot of ISIS claimed responsibility. Up until the attack, no one had heard about this group really, so who are they?
The group was officially launched in January 2015 by disaffected Taliban and operates under the ISIS umbrella in the Khurasan province which is a historical region that incorporates parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, it is believed the group actually started operating as early as September 2014 after ISIL began recruiting locals to the organization. ISIL representatives were able to flip disenchanted Taliban leaders and commanders into organization after former Taliban commander Abdul Rauf Khadim visited Iraq and met with ISIL leaders. When he returned he began recruiting other Taliban leadership into his newly formed organization, ISIS-K.
Believe it or not, these folks didn’t consider the Taliban extreme enough in how they enforced Sharia law and that was the main factor in them starting ISIS-K. The Taliban actually consider these guys “brutal” by their own standards which is alarming. It should also be noted that while this group is mainly based in the eastern province of Nangarhar, unlike the Taliban, their vision is not limited to Afghanistan only and they have aspirations of being part of a global terror network.
It is believed they currently number about 1,000 strong although at one point they numbered over 3,000 strong. They were largely controlled by Afghan security forces, US Military and oddly enough the Taliban. The organization has lost their leaders such as Hafiz Saeed Khan which has helped cause confusion amongst the group and make them largely irrelevant for the most part.
So how are they becoming relevant again? Well for the most obvious would be the evacuation of American forces leaving a large power vacuum. However, there are many other factors such as the Taliban’s rise to power, which they quickly used to free large amounts of prisoners from prison such as Pul-e-Charki in Kabul. These prisons largely held ISIS-K militants who were now free to roam the country again. Interestingly enough, there is also a connection between the Taliban and ISIS-K that might keep them allied more than it would separate them. It is believed that the Taliban and ISIS-K are both apart of the Haqqani Network of terrorist groups. This connection is possibly the only reason the Taliban did not execute every ISIS-K militant in a prison, and instead released most of them. The next few weeks and months will be telling in terms of whether the Taliban will up their attacks on ISIS-K or if they will further align themselves with them.
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