Afghan IS poses biggest threat to Taliban regime, say army chiefs

AFGHANISTAN’S branch of Islamic State (IS), known as IS-K, represents the most serious security threat to the new Taliban government, commanders who fought the jihadists have said.

The two military leaders appeared to reject the Taliban regime’s reassurances that there is little to fear from the group.

Both said they considered the militants to be a tougher adversary than the former Afghan government’s forces.

They made the comments as the Taliban regime’s chief spokesman downplayed the risk from the group, even after it claimed responsibility for bombings around Jalalabad at the weekend in which eight people were killed.

Zabiullah Mujahid said the Afghan affiliate of IS, Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), had no significant presence.

“The Isis [an alternative name for IS] that exists in Iraq and Syria does not exist here,” he told a press conference. “Still, some people who may be our own Afghans have adopted the Isis mentality, which is a phenomenon that the people do not support.”

IS-K first arrived in 2014 and quickly made inroads in eastern Afghanistan and several northern provinces. It grew via defections from militant groups including the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban. The latter group waged bloody campaigns against the upstart jihadists.

“I think for the Taliban leadership, in terms of security they are the number one threat,” said Mujahid ul-rahman, a Taliban leader from Ghazni, who had fought in a specialist anti-is-k unit.

He said he had engaged the group near Tora Bora, in Nangarhar province, facing suicide bombers and stiff resistance. “They put up much more in resistance than the Afghan army,” he said.

While IS-K had lost much of its territory, it had sleeper cells and was likely to wage an urban terrorist campaign and sectarian attacks on Afghan Shia Muslims, the commander predicted.

“At the moment they are hiding, but I think they will follow the Taliban’s own tactics in Kabul and other cities.

“For Taliban fighting with a visible Isis, it is easy to attack them but fighting with an invisible Isis is a challenge for the Taliban regime.

“I think they will attack our Shia brothers and of course now it is the Taliban’s responsibility to fight them to secure Afghan national security.”

Another commander called Qazi, from Kunar, said he had fought IS-K in the province as recently as early August.

“They are well equipped and have suicide bombers like us,” he said.

“It will take some time to end Isis in Afghanistan. The Taliban will keep watching after Isis as a priority.”

‘It will take some time to end Isis in Afghanistan. The Taliban will keep watching after Isis as a priority’