Sept. 17 (UPI) — The Islamic State-Khorasan Province made headlines when it claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the final days of the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Nearly 200 people were killed, including 13 U.S. troops assisting with evacuations.
But who is ISIS-K and how close is its affiliation with the Islamic State, which has been active in Iraq and Syria since 2014?
Much like its parent terror group, ISIS-K is known by many names. The U.S. government refers to it as ISIS-K, while other agencies or media outlets may call it IS-KP, ISIL-K or Daesh-Khorasan (based on a transliteration of the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State). The group takes its name from the historical Khorasan region in Asia — parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.
According to an analysis of ISIS-K’s history by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the group was first made up of militants who defected in 2014 from Tehrik-e-Taliban, al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Islamic State sent its members to meet with these defected fighters to form the Khorasan branch by early 2015 under the leadership of Hafiz Saeed Khan.
Membership in ISIS-K also includes fighters from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
Like the Islamic State, the Khorasan offshoot seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate and label those who reject Sharia law as apostates who can be executed as punishment.
ISIS-K was — and still is — a rival to the Taliban political movement and militant group, though there has been some overlap with the Taliban’s Haqqani Network. Specifically, ISIS-K vowed to retaliate against the Taliban for engaging in peace negotiations with the United States earlier this year and for not ruling strictly according to Sharia law.
ISIS-K has also fought Afghan security forces, as well as other international forces — basically any entity that doesn’t abide by its strict form of Islamic rule.
A July 2016 U.S. airstrike killed ISIS-K’s first leader, Khan. The group’s seventh leader, Shabab al-Muhajir, is currently in power. Al-Muhajir, an Iraqi, previously belonged to the Haqqani Network and al-Qaida, before joining ISIS-K.
The CSIS said al-Muhajir is believed to be the first commander of the group to hail from outside the historic Khorasan region.
The group is funded largely through local donations, extortion and by the parent ISIS group, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
A CSIS analysis indicated that ISIS-K was at its strongest in 2018 and has since declined. The group conducted some 200 attacks in 2018, while it has claimed responsibility for roughly 50 so far in 2021.
By May 2021, the U.N. Security Council estimated ISIS-K had a membership of between 1,500 and 2,200 fighters based mostly in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, Afghanistan.
Among its most notable attacks were a series of explosions at campaign rallies in Bannu and Mastung, Pakistan, in 2018 that killed about 150 people. The group also claimed responsibility for a series of bombs near a school in Kabul in May, which killed 90 people.
Still, its most deadly single attack remains the Aug. 26 suicide explosion at the Kabul International Airport amid the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the U.S.-led evacuation of the capital.
In its assessment, the CSIS said ISIS-K is a threat to Afghan civilians and the newly established Taliban government, and the group likely feels “emboldened” by its deadly attack on Aug. 26 and the “power vacuum” left by the withdrawal of U.S. troops and allies.
“ISKP will likely continue to plan and conduct attacks, as well as expand recruitment efforts, but its success will depend on several factors, including the Taliban’s speed and success in establishing a government, local and regional counterterrorism efforts, and ISKP’s ability to manage its image among a population that it has historically struggled to recruit,” said the CSIS report written by lead author Catrina Doxsee, program manager and research associate.
Earlier this month, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it’s “possible” the threat of ISIS-K could lead the United States to work with the Taliban to defeat the militant group, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to doubt that cooperation would extend beyond evacuation efforts.
For his part, President Joe Biden promised to respond with force against the ISIS-K in the hours after the attack.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
Indeed, one day later, the U.S. military conducted a drone strike that killed at least one planner of the Aug. 26 attack.
Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Conversation that the Aug. 26 attack forced the United States to “recalculate” its approach in Afghanistan. He said the United States will need local assets to help identify and track ISIS-K targets, but that will be difficult to do after withdrawal.
Lucas questioned whether the Biden administration will continue its cooperation with the Taliban in order to focus on retaliation against ISIS-K.
“It is unlikely that the maneuvering with the Taliban will be in public, but watch the signals from Washington, London and elsewhere carefully,” he wrote. “If rhetoric about rights and security for Afghans is replaced with slogans about security for Americans and Britons — if the fate of Afghans is supplanted by the war on terror — then the West may be preparing for the unlikeliest of bedfellows in whatever conflict lies ahead.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley deliver remarks about the end of the 20-year military mission in Afghanistan at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Va., on September 1. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Relatives of a family killed in a U.S. drone strike and other civilians gather next to a damaged vehicle in Kabul on August 30. The strike was aimed at a suspected car bomb. Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI | License Photo
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30. He is the final American service member to depart Afghanistan. Photo by Jack Holt/U.S. Central Command | License Photo
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pay their respects during the dignified transfer of the remains of Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak of Berlin Heights, Ohio, on August 29, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Soviak was killed, along with 12 other American service members, in a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport on August 26. Photo by Jason Minto/U.S. Air Force | License Photo
Flag-draped transfer cases line the inside of a C-17 Globemaster II on August 29, prior to a dignified transfer of the troops’ remains at Dover. Photo by Jason Minto/U.S. Air Force | License Photo
Demonstrators protest the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan at Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, D.C., on August 29. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Smoke billows over the site of an explosion near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 29. The process of withdrawing the 5,000 U.S. military personnel deployed to Kabul’s airport for the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies was carried out in the face of “very real” threats of additional attacks such as the one two days before that killed about 200, the Pentagon said August 28. Photo by EPA-EFE
A child holds an Afghan flag at a rally to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan in New York City on August 28. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Protesters hold up signs and flags at the Save Afghan Lives rally in New York. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
A U.S. Marine assists evacuees at a checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26. Photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/USMC | License Photo
Refugees are evacuated from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26. Photo by Hassan Majeed/UPI | License Photo
Biden pauses while delivering remarks on the terror attack that killed 13 U.S. service members in Kabul on August 26. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/UPI | License Photo
Refugees evacuated from Kabul are greeted by family members as they arrive at the Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va.,on August 26. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, as of August 25, about 88,000 had safely departed Afghanistan, with five flights carrying 1,200 passengers landing at Dulles outside Washington, D.C. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Refugees evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan arrive at Dulles. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Afghans gather outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in an effort to flee the country on August 24. Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI | License Photo
Biden arrives to deliver remarks on Afghanistan and the Group of Seven at the White House on August 24. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
Taliban fighters stand guard outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport during an evacuation on August 24. Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., an Afghanistan war veteran, flanked by fellow Republican House members, speaks during a news conference on the Afghanistan evacuation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on August 24. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
A child waits with her family to board a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 22. Photo by Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/USMC | License Photo
Biden (L) meets his national security team for an operational update on Afghanistan at the White House on August 22. Photo courtesy of the White House | License Photo
Taliban fighters patrol in the streets of a neighborhood in Kabul on August 22. Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI | License Photo
Medical support personnel help an Afghan mother and family off a U.S. Air Force C-17 moments after she delivered a child aboard the aircraft upon landing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on August 21. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force | License Photo
A large field near a row of barracks is being prepared to provide a soccer field and recreational area for the arrival of Afghan evacuees at Fort McCoy, Wis., on August 18. Photo by 1st Sgt. Michel Sauret/U.S. Army | License Photo
Civilians board a plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 19. Photo by Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar/U.S. Air Force | License Photo
Biden (C) delivers remarks on the evacuation of American citizens and vulnerable Afghans at the White House on August 20. From left to right, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Army soldiers board a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft prior to departure for Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Allies Refuge at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, on August 13. Photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Brooks/U.S. Air Force | License Photo
Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs the media on Afghanistan at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on August 18. Milley stated that U.S. military intelligence did not indicate that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban as quickly as it did, adding that the United States conducted a “deliberate and responsible drawdown” of troops. Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Julian Kemper/Department of Defense | License Photo
Sullivan holds a press briefing on the troops withdrawal at the White House on August 17. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Biden delivers remarks on Afghanistan in the White House on August 16. Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI | License Photo
Taliban militants gather after taking control of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, Afghanistan, on August 13. Taliban fighters captured Kandahar and Helmand, the two largest provinces in southern Afghanistan, and Ghor in the west, officials said on August 13, making significant military victories in their blitzkrieg towards power in Kabul. Photo by EPA-EFE
Biden said U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by August 31, ending the 20-year military presence during remarks at the White House on July 8. Photo by Tom Brenner/UPI | License Photo