ISLAMABAD – Islamic State fighters who waged a bloody campaign in Syria andIraq are heading to Afghanistan to continue their jihad and help plot”spectacular” attacks against America, a US official has told AFP.
The warning comes as IS seeks to assert a regional influence after the lossof its self-proclaimed Middle East “caliphate”, and as South Asia reelsfrom a series of devastating attacks.
“We know some have already made their way back here and are trying totransfer the knowledge, skills and experience they learned over there,” asenior US intelligence official in Kabul told AFP in a recent interview.
“If we don’t continue counterterrorism pressure against (IS inAfghanistan), there will be an attack in our homeland — and a spectacularattack — probably within the year,” added the official, who asked not tobe named for security reasons.
The official did not describe the nature of any plot, but IS has beenlinked to or inspired several big attacks in America, including a 2016 massshooting in Florida.
The gunman, who had sworn allegiance to IS, killed 49 people in an Orlandonightclub.
A recent UN report said IS in Afghanistan has between 2,500 and 4,000members — about the same number the Pentagon was citing two years ago,even though officials say thousands of jihadists have been killed.
US Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee, said after a recent visit to Afghanistan that IS in theKhorasan, or IS-K as the local affiliate is known, had grown in bothnumbers and capabilities.
In 2017, the Pentagon offered a rosy assessment that IS-K could be wipedout by the end of that year. But Resolute Support, the NATO mission inAfghanistan, underestimated the group’s tenacity.
“Resolute Support realised that this was bigger than a little problem insouthern Nangarhar and instead would take something more to address it,”the official said, referring to IS-K’s bastion in eastern Afghanistan.
The official and a team of experts arrived in Kabul over the past year tohelp General Scott Miller — the four-star general in charge of US and NATOforces — tackle IS-K.
He did not say how many former “caliphate” fighters are in Afghanistan, butargued “any number is significant”.
Europeans — including from Britain and France — are among those who havejoined IS-K, he added.
Their presence could complicate any peace deal with the Taliban, who havepledged to prevent terrorists using Afghanistan as a haven to plot foreignattacks.
“Unless or until we get the Taliban to work and address this problem aswell, they will never be able to keep this land free from outwardly facingorganisations,” the official said.
– Baghdadi is back –
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The US has led an unrelenting air campaign, including famously dropping theso-called Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB), the Pentagon’s largest non-nuclearbomb, to smash jihadist tunnels and bunkers.
But the well-funded group has replenished its ranks with foreign fightersand local recruits looking for a decent wage.
IS-K has suffered losses in the northern Jowzjan province but maintainsstrongholds in Nangarhar and Kunar in the east, where they have beaten backTaliban forces and displaced thousands of locals.
Internationally, IS claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks,including the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 253 people in churches andhotels in Sri Lanka.
On Monday, the jihadists’ elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi apparentlyresurfaced in a propaganda video, his first purported appearance since 2014.
IS-K conducted six high-profile attacks in Kabul in 2016, according to theUS. In 2017 that number grew to 18, and last year there were 24. On April20, IS claimed a suicide attack on a government ministry.
Some Afghan officials question whether IS always oversees such assaults, orif the Taliban and Pakistan groups such as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqaninetwork are responsible.
“These attacks are carried out mostly by these Afghan and Pakistani groups,while the credit goes to Daesh who is ready to jump and claim it,” anAfghan security official told AFP, using the Arabic name for IS.
– New recruits –
Disillusioned Taliban insurgents sometimes switch to IS-K over spats or forideological reasons, viewing the Taliban as not austere enough in theirinterpretation of Islam.
Tech-savvy recruiters track and groom potential jihadists through socialmedia and in Kabul’s universities, where middle-class and upwardly mobilestudents are sometimes targeted.
They are “looking for men who … have been taught at schools paid for bythis coalition. That’s a little aggravating,” the official said.
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense ofDemocracies and editor of its Long War Journal, said that while the USmilitary had failed to beat IS-K, it “probably stymied their growth anddisrupted their operations at times.”
“But it hasn’t taken them out of the game,” he told AFP. -APP/AFP
