Kabul: The IS-K had earlier claimed the responsibility of the suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport. Several people were killed in the attack including 13 US soldiers.
The Islamic State Khorasan Province also known as ISIS-K, ISKP and ISK is an Islamic terrorist outfit affiliated to the Islamic State movement. ‘Khorasan’ is a historical name for the region, taking in parts of what is today Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. The ISIS-K is based in Afghanistan. The organization was recognized by the Islamic State leadership based in Syria and Iraq.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index, IS-K is one of the top four deadliest terrorist organizations in the world. According to UN Security Council, the organization has strength vary from several thousand active fighters to as low as 500.
Also Read: From Kerala to Kabul to Kashmir – the threat posed to India by Islamic State Khorasan
The radical militant organization was founded in January 2015 by former members of the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
The IS-K Now hold control of several rural districts in Kunar, Nangarhar and Nuristan provinces. As per United Nations monitors, it also managed to set up sleeper cells in other parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including Kabul. The organization is notorious for its lethal attacks against civilians especially minority communities. The group has especially targeted Muslims from sects it considers heretical, including Shiites.
To the IS-K the Taliban are their arch rivals. They see Taliban as ‘filthy nationalists’ with ambitions only to form a government confined to the boundaries of Afghanistan. From the beginning, the IS-K had targeted Taliban across the country. Since its inception, ISIS-K has tried to recruit Afghan Taliban members while also targeting Taliban positions throughout the country. They have differed on the minutiae of religion and strategy, while claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad.
But the IS-K has suffered massive losses due to Taliban and US-led military operations. According to UN and US military assessments, after the phase of heavy defeats, IS-Khorasan now operates largely through covert cells based in or near cities to carry out high-profile attacks.
ISIS had been highly critical of the deal last year between the USA and the Taliban that led to the agreement for withdrawing foreign troops, accusing the group of abandoning the jihadist cause. Almost all Jihadist organizations organizations congratulated Taliban for capturing power in Afghanistan except the ISIS. One IS commentary published 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 SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist communications.
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