Aaj English TV

Friday, April 19, 2024  
09 Shawwal 1445  

ISIS-K publishes picture of suicide bomber who attacked Kabul airport

The attack killed at least 100 Afghans, including 13 US service members.
The attack is the most lethal incident for US troops in Afghanistan in a decade. File photo
The attack is the most lethal incident for US troops in Afghanistan in a decade. File photo

Islamic State Khorasan published picture of a suicide bomber who attacked the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, according to a twitter post of SITE Intelligence group's director.

Rita Katz is the SITE's director which is a non-governmental counterterrorism organization specialized in tracking and analyzing online activity of the global violent extremist community.

The attack killed at least 100 Afghans, including 13 US service members, the most lethal incident for US troops in Afghanistan in a decade.

What is Islamic State in Afghanistan?

Following are some facts about the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, which US officials believe was behind suspected suicide bomb attacks outside Kabul airport that killed at least 13 people:

  • ISIS-K named after an old term for the region, first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

  • Some experts on Islamist militancy in the region say it was founded by elements of the Pakistani Taliban who fled into Afghanistan when Pakistan security forces cracked down on them.

  • From the beginning, the Daesh challenged the Taliban for control of key areas on the border with Pakistan associated with smuggling of narcotics and other commodities.

  • At the same time, it also carried out a series of suicide bombings in Kabul and other cities against both government and foreign military targets, apparently aimed at establishing its credentials as a more violent and extreme militant movement.

  • Its attacks ranged from the brutal executions of village elders to the killings of Red Cross workers and suicide attacks on crowds, including a series of bloody suicide operations against targets associated with the Shia minority.

  • Initially confined to a small number of areas on the border with Pakistan, the group established a second major front in northern provinces including Jawzjan and Faryab. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point said ISIS-K includes Pakistanis from other militant groups and Uzbek extremists in addition to Afghans.

  • In April 2017, a US cargo aircraft dropped a 20,000-pound bomb, known as the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs), on a cave complex linked to ISIS-K in Achin district, eastern Afghanistan. It was the largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal.

  • ISIS-K has fought both the Western-backed government and the Taliban, but its precise operational connection with the main Islamic State movement in Iraq and Syria remains uncertain.

  • US intelligence officials believe the movement used the instability that led to the collapse of the Western-backed government this month to strengthen its position and step up recruitment of disenfranchised Taliban members.

  • Among its recent targets was a Sufi mosque, electrical pylons and fuel tankers and Shia bus passengers in Kabul. In addition, US officials believe an attack on a girls school for the mainly Shia Hazara minority was the work of ISIS-K.

With input from Reuters

Comments are closed on this story.

Comments

Taboola

Taboola ads will show in this div