ISIS-K: What we know about the group that claimed credit for Thursday’s attack.
Shortly after a bombing attack killed masses of people Thursday, including at least 13 U.S. troops at Afghanistan’s main airport, President Biden vowed to get revenge.
“We will not forget,” Biden said from the White House. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Here’s what we know about the group that claimed credit for the attack.
What is the Islamic State Khorasan?
The group, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, ISIS-K or ISISKP, is an Afghan affiliate of the central Islamic State group in the Middle East. Islamic State Khorasan, founded in 2015 by disaffected Pakistani Taliban, is smaller, newer and embraces a more violent version of Islam than the Taliban, which just toppled the U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan after a two-decade insurgency.
Islamic State Khorasan “disregards international borders,” according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “and envisions its territory transcending nation-states like Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
The name Khorasan translates to “The Land of the Sun.” Khorasan refers to a historical region that includes parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
What are its roots?
The myriad terrorist organizations that have waged war on U.S. forces and allies are interlocked and at times in competition with each other for supremacy.
The terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001, was orchestrated by al Qaeda, the terrorist group led at the time by Osama bin Laden. In response to those attacks, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, ousting the Taliban government that shielded bin Laden, and then invaded Iraq, where President George W. Bush said a proactive strike against terrorism was needed.
Years later, a branch of al Qaeda broke away and established a so-called caliphate, an Islamic theocracy, in large parts of Iraq and Syria. At its peak, the territory was the size of Britain. That breakaway faction, called the Islamic State, or ISIS, was savvier about social media than al Qaeda and began specializing in a cinematic approach to brutality. The Islamic State also appealed to a younger generation of fighters, in part by promising immediate glory and rewards for those willing to fight its enemies.
In 2015, the Islamic State announced that it had accepted the loyalty of a new branch in the Khorasan region.
Who are its enemies?
Like other terrorist groups, Islamic State Khorasan has targeted U.S. forces, their allies and civilians. But unlike the others, the group openly fought with other extremist Islamic organizations, such as the Taliban.
Islamic State Khorasan has been mostly antagonistic toward the Taliban, and the two groups have fought for turf, particularly in eastern Afghanistan. Since 2017, experts say, the group has been responsible for roughly 250 clashes with the U.S., Afghan and Pakistani security forces.
More recently, Islamic State Khorasan leaders have denounced the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, saying that the group’s version of Islamic rule was insufficiently hard line.
Didn’t the U.S. destroy the Islamic State?
In October 2019, President Donald Trump announced the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying in a speech that he was “the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world.” Trump went on to say, “We obliterated his caliphate, 100%, in March of this year.”
In January 2020, Trump again bragged about having destroyed “100% of ISIS and its territorial caliphate.” He also said that before al-Baghdadi was killed, he had been “trying again to rebuild the ISIS caliphate and failed.”
Clearly, it was not 100%.
Before al-Baghdadi’s death, he had expanded the organization and given subordinates considerable latitude to act. Islamic State encouraged followers to act alone or in small groups. Hassan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian expert on extremist groups, said at the time that “getting rid of the leader does not get rid of the organization.”
The Islamic State, he warned, “has created a new structure that is less centralized, and it will continue, even without al-Baghdadi.”
In 2016, a year after it was founded, Islamic State Khorasan was at its peak size, with about 3,000 to 4,000 fighters, according to analyst estimates. That figure was cut in half after the group was targeted by U.S. air strikes and Afghan commando raids.