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ISIL-K claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack outside Kabul Airport. The following is what we know about the group.
The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), also known as ISIL-Khorasan or ISIL-K, has claimed Deadly suicide attack Outside Kabul Airport, at least 72 Afghans and 13 American soldiers were killed and dozens of others were injured.
ISIL-K stated that its suicide bombers singled out “translators and collaborators for the U.S. military” in the attack on Thursday night.
According to the organization that now rules Afghanistan, 28 Taliban members were among the dead.
ISIL-K is known as an offshoot of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Da’esh), the organization is trying to establish a new caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Khorasan refers to a historical area under the rule of the ancient Caliphate, which once included parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan.
The armed group was composed of separated Pakistani Taliban fighters and Afghan fighters who sworn allegiance to the late ISIL leader in 2014. Abu Bakr Baghdadi.
ISIL-K has deep roots in northeastern Afghanistan, but sleepers have been set up in Kabul and other provinces.
They are opponents of the Taliban and have different doctrines of strict Sunni beliefs.
In an interview with Al Jazeera in 2014, Middle East Forum researcher Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi stated that ISIL-K “is not actually an independent group” but a team of Al-Qaida members from Afghanistan—the border area of Pakistan.
Bloody rampage
Since its establishment, some of the toughest ISIL-K fighters have traveled from Afghanistan to Iraq and Syria to fight and help ISIL and plan attacks on Western targets.
Although it is not clear how many combatants have joined the organization, ISIS-K is responsible for some of the most serious attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent years, causing deaths in mosques, public squares and even hospitals.
Bloody rampage in the maternity ward in Kabul In May 2020, 24 deaths, including women and babies, were also blamed on the organization.
ISIL-K has been criticizing any cooperation between the Taliban and the United States, including the withdrawal of foreign troops.
Rasha al-Aqeedi, head of the non-state actor project at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a think tank, stated that ISIL-K will use these attacks for propaganda.
“The final game of ISIL-K or ISIL wherever it operates is not necessarily a direct strategic goal. The purpose of these operations is to cause as many massacres as possible, and the purpose is to show that they are still They exist, they are still a threat,” al-Aqeedi said.
“Their modus operandi is very similar to ISIL in Iraq and Syria,” she added.
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