How ISIS-K leader forged one of Islamic State’s most fearsome groups

KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (Reuters) - Sanaullah Ghafari, the 29-year-old leader of the Afghan branch of Islamic State, has overseen its transformation into one of the most fearsome branches of the global Islamist network, capable of operations far from its bases in the borderlands of Afghanistan.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow that killed at least 139 people. U.S. officials have said they have intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

Washington has said it had warned Russia this month of an imminent attack. A source familiar with this intelligence said it was based on interceptions of “chatter” among ISIS-K militants.

The discovery of Tajik passports on the gunmen arrested by

Russian authorities suggested a possible link to Ghafari’s group, which has aggressively recruited from the poor Central Asian country, security experts say.

In recent years, his organization has also sought repeatedly to strike at Russia in retaliation for its intervention in the Syrian civil war, which helped to defeat ISIS’ regional operations.

Ghafari was initially reported killed in Afghanistan last June but escaped with injuries across the frontier into Pakistan and is believed to be living in its lawless Balochistan border province, two sources in the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban told Reuters.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Ghafari’s whereabouts.