Explosions in Kabul marked reappearance of terrorist groups in Afghanistan: internal and religious differences with the Taliban

If the White House thought its worst enemy in Afghanistan were the Taliban wrong. The irruption of Islamic State K, the Afghan branch of this terrorist group, added an even more dramatic tinge to this mess race against time led by the United States to conclude by August 31 one of the most difficult mass evacuations in its history.

These attacks confirmed what everyone feared: that the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan means the rapid reappearance of various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, ”the international analyst told TN.com.ar. Jorge Castro.

And this fear that has been palpitating in recent days has become reality with the series of attacks that struck this Thursday around Kabul international airport, controlled by American troops and surrounded by thousands of Afghans who are desperately seeking to leave their homes. countries with a balance of several dozen. of victims.

“The stake here is the conversion of Afghanistan, under the domination of the Taliban, into a hotbed of instability and crisis in the international security system of enormous reach, ”said Castro.

Dialogue against terrorism

The White House had dialogued in recent days with the Taliban to extend the evacuation operation beyond August 31. For that the president Joe biden sent a very high level envoy to Kabul, no less than the head of the CIA, William burns.

The Taliban’s response was forceful and included a veiled threat over the “consequences” that US troops would face if they did not leave the country by the end of the month.

But the militiamen of the Islamic State Khorasan (EI-K) is not threatening. They regard the Taliban, one of the most radical groups in Islam, as “apostates” and “weak“Before the United States. And that’s how they launched one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years.

“This changes the terms in which the US withdrawal” from Afghanistan is being proposed, particularly in view of the deaths of 12 US soldiers, Castro said.

And he said, “This is a political and strategic defeat for the United States, only comparable to the one it experienced in Vietnam. Besides, inaugurates a period of international weakening of Washington because the terms of the world situation are modified and show the White House in a framework of relative strategic weakness vis-à-vis China ”.

What is the Islamic State Khorasan

The multiple layers of international terrorism often surprise intelligence analysts.

The Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) is a detachment of the terrorist group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and who came to create a caliphate between Syria and Iraq: the Islamic State. In 2014, a group of Taliban of Pakistani origin joined the Afghan Islamic militias to form this regional faction of Sunni origin.

Thus was born the Islamic State Khorasan (EI-K), name chosen for the region in which the group was based, shared between Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and much of Central Asia.

The group is not very large. According to a UN Security Council report published last July, he would have around 500 fighters. Their bases are deployed in the provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan, all in northeastern Afghanistan, where they imposed a reign of terror that included beheadings. shootings and torture.

The attacks perpetrated this Thursday in Kabul they weren’t the first. In the past, he has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan that targeted mosques, squares and hospitals, killing dozens.

So far, according to a report by AFP, their main targets were Shiite Muslims, considered to be heretics. One of his attacks targeted a Shiite wedding in Kabul in 2019 in which 91 people died.

A maternity hospital in a Shiite neighborhood in Kabul is also suspected of having been gunned down in May 2020. The death toll was 25, including 16 mothers and newborns.

But there is a curious fact: lately were fought by the Taliban and US troops.

Religious differences between Islamic State K and the Taliban

The Taliban and IS-K militiamen have the same origin: they are Sunni Islamists, but maintain deep differences on religious issues. Each group claims to be the bastion of the “holy war”, the Jihad. But terrorists from the Islamic State of Khorasan often refer to the Taliban as “apostates.”

According to Site intelligence group, which monitors the communications of terrorist groups on the web, the IS-K has pledged to continue the fight in Afghanistan after the seizure of power by its Taliban enemies.

And its irruption in Kabul further accelerates the crisis. Now the only thing left for the United States to do is to hasten their exit from Afghanistan.