{"id":69132,"date":"2021-12-06T12:30:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T01:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=69132"},"modified":"2021-12-06T11:48:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T00:48:57","slug":"the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In what is becoming a monthly phenomenon, Islamic State\u2019s branch in Afghanistan (Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K) has\u00a0topped<\/a>\u00a0all of its global provinces in terms of both quantity of operations as well as casualties inflicted,\u00a0<\/em>reclaiming its place as the\u00a0most powerful<\/a>\u00a0Islamic State branch. Despite pollyannaish\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0by senior Taliban officials to Western media outlets that IS-K \u2018is not a serious threat to the Islamic Emirate\u2019 or that, \u2018If we get rid of all our economic and administrative problems, ISIS will\u00a0disappear<\/a>\u00a0in 15 days in all of Afghanistan\u2019, the reality of IS-K\u2019s resilience and expansion is becoming ever more apparent.<\/p>\n

Deborah Lyon, the UN secretary-general\u2019s special representative for Afghanistan, recently\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the UN Security Council, \u2018Once limited to a few provinces and the capital, [IS-K] now seems to be present in nearly all provinces, and increasingly active\u2019. Indeed, there\u2019s been a marked increase in attacks across the country since 2020. US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl similarly\u00a0testified<\/a>\u00a0to Congress, \u2018We could see [IS-K] generate that capability [for foreign attacks] in somewhere between six or 12 months\u2019, adding that the Taliban\u2019s ability to combat the group \u2018is to be determined\u2019. The US recently\u00a0identified<\/a>\u00a0and sanctioned senior officials of IS-K, including its leader.<\/p>\n

IS-K has\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0daily attacks against the Taliban across Afghanistan, ambushing, bombing and assassinating its operatives, including senior Taliban official Hamdullah Mokhlis, head of Kabul security and commander of the Taliban\u2019s Badri special forces unit.<\/p>\n

It also continues to conduct mass-casualty attacks, particularly but not exclusively targeting the Hazara Shia minority. These attacks include bombing\u00a0public transport<\/a> and suicide\u00a0bombings<\/a>\u00a0at Shiite mosques in Kunduz and\u00a0Kandahar<\/a>, the so-called \u2018Taliban heartland\u2019. Dozens of Taliban were killed and wounded in a\u00a0bombing<\/a>\u00a0outside the Eidgah mosque, where a funeral ceremony was being held for the mother of Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. A complex attack involving several IS-K operatives on a military hospital in Kabul also resulted in scores of casualties.<\/p>\n

In response, the Taliban has been\u00a0conducting<\/a>\u00a0a scorched-earth campaign of indiscriminate violence, detaining and disappearing around 1,500 people in Nangarhar province alone. Recently, the Taliban\u00a0deployed<\/a> more than 1,000 additional fighters to Nangarhar province and escalated their brutality. Hundreds of suspected IS-K operatives were murdered and many bodies, some beheaded, were dumped in the streets or strung up in public as a warning.<\/p>\n

So brutal is this Taliban war with IS-K that the hospital in Jalalabad, Nangarhar\u2019s provincial capital, treated more\u00a0casualties<\/a>\u00a0in November than it treated during the war between the Taliban, NATO and the Afghan government. Given that many of those being disappeared and murdered are not IS-K operatives, the Taliban\u2019s campaign may only serve to increase IS-K recruitment, and there\u2019s little evidence that it\u2019s having any impact on the group\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

Indeed, IS-K gives as good as it gets, most recently\u00a0beheading<\/a>\u00a0several Taliban fighters in Kandahar, which, together with the mosque bombing in October, indicates that even the Taliban\u2019s stronghold is vulnerable. Taliban intelligence officials in Kabul secretly admit that one area of Nangarhar has become a \u2018no-go zone\u2019 for them and is \u2018one hundred percent\u2019 controlled<\/a> by IS-K.<\/p>\n

In spite of\u00a0the Taliban\u2019s backing<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Russia<\/a>, Iran, China and especially Pakistan\u2014with the US\u00a0likely<\/a>\u00a0sharing intelligence<\/a> amid recurring reports<\/a> of unidentified drones flying over Afghanistan\u2014all trends suggest there\u2019s fertile ground for IS-K to vastly increase its size and potency. Credible<\/a>\u00a0reports have already emerged of the group openly recruiting both Taliban fighters and former members<\/a>\u00a0of the Afghan intelligence agencies and special forces in several provinces.<\/p>\n

Three months after the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan has experienced\u00a0total economic collapse<\/a>\u00a0and is barrelling towards\u00a0humanitarian catastrophe<\/a>\u00a0and famine. While the Taliban have no funds to even pay their own fighters, IS-K is allegedly\u00a0offering<\/a>\u00a0between US$300\u00a0and US$1,000\u00a0for recruits, an enticing offer for a starving population. The Taliban\u2019s own brutality towards the Afghan population and complete lack of interest in governing will likely\u00a0fuel<\/a>\u00a0recruitment or at least reduce the ranks of those willing to provide information to the Taliban.<\/p>\n

IS-K has also been\u00a0playing up<\/a>\u00a0the Taliban\u2019s warm and public relationship with China, which is engaged in a genocidal campaign against Uyghur Muslims next door. The group made sure to\u00a0publicise<\/a>\u00a0that the suicide bomber in the Kunduz attack was Uyghur, propaganda that could attract the substantial number of Uyghurs fighting under al-Qaeda and Taliban auspices for the Turkistan Islamic Party. IS-K has emphasised that the Taliban is a proxy of Pakistan and a\u00a0partner<\/a>\u00a0of the US, and, most egregiously for potential recruits, has\u00a0underlined<\/a>\u00a0that the Taliban are protecting the Shia rather than killing them.<\/p>\n

Aside from financial, sectarian and ideological factors, the Taliban rank and file are simply\u00a0bored<\/a>. The group was founded on martyrdom and jihad, and, on top of financial incentives, many Taliban may simply join IS-K to be able to continue waging jihad\u00a0indefinitely<\/a>\u00a0and have the chance to become \u2018martyrs\u2019.<\/p>\n

In addition, aside from the strong grassroots\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0among some urban Tajiks, exacerbated by the fact that the Taliban is essentially a Pashtun movement, IS-K has absorbed cadres that\u00a0defected<\/a>\u00a0from the Taliban and other jihadist entities, including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, otherwise known as the Pakistani Taliban. This has allowed the group to\u00a0expand<\/a>\u00a0its operations in Pakistan, as well. So thoroughly infiltrated are the Taliban and TTP by IS-K that the Taliban\u2019s emir, Haibatullah Akhunzada, recently\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0the group in a rare address. IS-K nearly killed Akhunzada in Pakistan in 2019, as part of a\u00a0wide campaign<\/a>\u00a0across Afghanistan and Pakistan hunting the Taliban.<\/p>\n

On paper, the Taliban have every\u00a0advantage<\/a>\u00a0against IS-K; in practice, there\u2019s no evidence that their take-no-prisoners campaign has affected IS-K to any great extent. While IS-K probably won\u2019t threaten the Taliban\u2019s overall control of Afghanistan in the short term, it will soon likely be able to contest multiple districts, as it reportedly has in Nangarhar. US hopes of a counterterrorism partnership with the Taliban to prevent IS-K attacks were always\u00a0ill-conceived<\/a>\u2014the Taliban can\u2019t even protect themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what is becoming a monthly phenomenon, Islamic State\u2019s branch in Afghanistan (Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K) has\u00a0topped\u00a0all of its global provinces in terms of both quantity of operations as well as casualties inflicted,\u00a0reclaiming its …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":968,"featured_media":69136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[43,895,1088],"class_list":["post-69132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-afghanistan","tag-islamic-state","tag-taliban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In what is becoming a monthly phenomenon, Islamic State\u2019s branch in Afghanistan (Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K) has\u00a0topped\u00a0all of its global provinces in terms of both quantity of operations as well as casualties inflicted,\u00a0reclaiming its ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T01:30:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T00:48:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oved Lobel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oved Lobel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"TOPSHOT - A Taliban member stands guard in front of the rubble of a suspected Islamic State hideout following an operation against Islamic State-Khorasan, the local chapter of the jihadist group, started a night before, in Kandahar on November 15, 2021. (Photo by Javed TANVEER \/ AFP) (Photo by JAVED TANVEER\/AFP via Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/\",\"name\":\"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-06T01:30:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-06T00:48:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e83d2c331b7776aff680a7eaa512ce69\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e83d2c331b7776aff680a7eaa512ce69\",\"name\":\"Oved Lobel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84d8cb035dd261d28237aa95b3da886?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84d8cb035dd261d28237aa95b3da886?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Oved Lobel\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/oved-lobel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist","og_description":"In what is becoming a monthly phenomenon, Islamic State\u2019s branch in Afghanistan (Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K) has\u00a0topped\u00a0all of its global provinces in terms of both quantity of operations as well as casualties inflicted,\u00a0reclaiming its ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2021-12-06T01:30:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-06T00:48:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Oved Lobel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Oved Lobel","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1236577394.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"TOPSHOT - A Taliban member stands guard in front of the rubble of a suspected Islamic State hideout following an operation against Islamic State-Khorasan, the local chapter of the jihadist group, started a night before, in Kandahar on November 15, 2021. (Photo by Javed TANVEER \/ AFP) (Photo by JAVED TANVEER\/AFP via Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/","name":"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2021-12-06T01:30:41+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-06T00:48:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e83d2c331b7776aff680a7eaa512ce69"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-taliban-are-losing-the-fight-against-islamic-state\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Taliban are losing the fight against Islamic State"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/e83d2c331b7776aff680a7eaa512ce69","name":"Oved Lobel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84d8cb035dd261d28237aa95b3da886?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b84d8cb035dd261d28237aa95b3da886?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Oved Lobel"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/oved-lobel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/968"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69137,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69132\/revisions\/69137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}