![]() The U.N.'s July report said that Shahab al-Muhajir heads the group, calling him "ambitious," and describing operations as "active and dangerous" under his leadership. "But there is a propaganda war now underway among terrorists and extremists trying to claim victory over the United States." Who is ISIS-K's leader? "ISIS had nothing to do with the Taliban military victory over the former government of Afghanistan," Warrick said. Now, the group wants credit for helping drive the Americans out of Afghanistan, says Tom Warrick, former deputy assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security. It has denounced the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. as a betrayal of jihad, the struggle against Islam's enemies. ISIS-K viewed the Taliban's deal with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and to cast doubt on the ability of the Taliban to govern and maintain order and security in the country. service members and Afghan civilians, was meant to undermine the Taliban, which has been cooperating with the U.S. The two groups are rivals, and the attack Thursday, beyond the fatalities and injuries it wrought on U.S. While the Taliban is focused on enforcing its version of sharia law in Afghanistan, ISIS-K has bigger aspirations – to establish an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East and Asia. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged to reporters, thousands of those prisoners were likely ISIS-K members. Pul-e-Charki prison, the largest prison in Afghanistan, housed approximately 5,000 prisoners on Kabul's outskirts. ISIS-K's ranks likely also grew in recent weeks: earlier this month, video emerged that showed thousands of inmates - including former Islamic State and al-Qaeda fighters - escaping from the jails at Bagram and Pul-e-Charkhi, as the Taliban gained power. And while a majority have teamed up with the Taliban or al Qaeda, others joined ISIS-K. Security Council estimates as many as 10,000 foreign fighters from Central Asia, Southern Russia, Pakistan and western China have rushed into Afghanistan in recent months. In recent months, ISIS-K has rebounded and is considered to be active and dangerous, as Thursday's bombing in Kabul tragically illustrated. Central Command, still maintained the terrorists were "not reconcilable" and must be eradicated.Ī small number of ISIS fighters were able to, as the network's motto says, "remain and withstand" in the Middle East, expanding its network of cells in the Sinai Peninsula and Sahel region of Africa. troops in August 2018, but Army General Joseph Votel, former head of U.S. Two hundred ISIS-K fighters surrendered to U.S. arsenal, commonly referred to as the "Mother of All Bombs." That explosion killed 96 ISIS-K members. annihilated ISIS-K strongholds in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province with a Massive Ordnance Air Blast – the largest conventional bomb in the U.S. By some estimates, American forces killed 75% of its fighters. has taken action against the group in the past, with airstrikes that killed ISIS-K's first, second, third and fourth emirs. A July report by the UN Security Council estimated the group now has between 500-1,200 fighters, but has the capacity to increase to 10,000.Įarly on, the group received support and funding from core ISIS leadership in Iraq and Syria, which enabled it to spread into Afghanistan. ISIS-K has never been a large network - at its peak, it numbered 4,000 to 6,000 and today has less than half.
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