Rival militant groups behind spike in terror
ISLAMABAD — The Islamic State and the Taliban are competing to take credit for a horrific spike in violence in Afghanistan over the past month, and analysts say both insurgent groups are growing in strength as security forces wither under their relentless attacks and a feuding government struggles to win over citizens.
Still, the two insurgent groups embrace different agendas and are at war with each other as well as the Afghan government, analysts say.
Recent large-scale attacks, which have included both suicide bombings and small arms fire, have left nearly 200 people dead and hundreds more wounded. Insurgents have targeted seemingly heavily secure areas in the heart of the Afghan capital, including an Afghan military academy on Monday and a hotel, owned by the government and frequented by foreigners, earlier this month. Using an ambulance to hide their deadly cargo, insurgents slipped passed checkpoints in Kabul’s heavily fortified center on Saturday to kill more than 100 people. They also targeted an international aid organization in eastern Jalalabad and a Shiite cultural center in Kabul.
Afghan Security Forces seem powerless against the onslaught.
Insurgents share the same goal of delegitimizing the governments they are fighting against, said Andrew Wilder, vice president of Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace. However, in Afghanistan the similarity between Islamic State and the Taliban ends there. Beyond toppling the Afghan government, the Islamic State affiliate and the Taliban have divergent goals, and where the Taliban are seen as possible negotiation partners in a search for peace, the Islamic State is not.
The two groups have occasionally clashed on the battlefield.
“The Taliban and IS are clearly competitors in the Afghan arena,” said Thomas Ruttig, whose Afghan Analysts network has deep knowledge of the country and has conducted nationwide studies into a myriad of issues confounding the country, including the Islamic State and Taliban.
“The Taliban I see as ‘national Islamists’ while the Islamic State is ‘Internationalist,’” he said, dismissing reports of collaboration between the two insurgent groups.
Brian Glyn Williams, author of “Counter Jihad: The American Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” buttressed reports of the enmity that characterizes the Taliban/Islamic State relationship, saying, “their relationship is more defined by open warfare.”
While loosely constructed, the Taliban since the death of its supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar several years ago are mostly comprised of ethnic Pashtuns and Arab speaking nationals with ties to al Qaeda.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State affiliate known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province, named for the ancient region that once included Afghanistan, parts of Iran and Central Asia, is a toxic mix of disgruntled Taliban, Pakistani Taliban, and Uzbeks, mostly from the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan terror group.