A hard-line faction of the Taliban has allied itself with Islamic State, prompting a series of bloody clashes against the mainstream Taliban in Afghanistan.
More than 50 militants have died in three days of heavy fighting in the southern province of Zabul.
A series of brutal sectarian killings has also provoked outrage, reports The Times, as Afghanistan has “largely kept a lid on the sectarian hatreds that are a particular focus of Isis ideology”.
Afghanistan’s president Mohammad Ashraf Ghani condemned the beheadings of several Shia Muslims from the Hazara minority, saying the “heartless killing of innocent individuals, especially women and children, has no justification in any religion or creed”.
The new splinter group is calling itself the High Council of the Islamic Emirate and has named a former Taliban government minister, Mullah Mohammad Rasool, as its supreme leader.
Analysts told The Times that the hard-line militants appeared to be trying to “push the violence to a greater extreme” and provoke a sectarian cycle of killing.
“While defections from the Taliban to Isis have been numerous, the new splinter group is the first reported to have made common cause with Isis,” notes the newspaper.
The New York Times says Isis defectors in Afghanistan have previously appeared to have “few, if any” operational links with the main jihadist organisation in Syria and Iraq. Nevertheless, the increasing violence and number of defections has “further confused the country’s insurgent situation” and “raised the danger for Afghan civilians”.
So who are the Isis militants and how can they be stopped?
What’s the difference between Isis and the Islamic State?
Isis, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, was regarded by the west as a terrorist organisation even before it began its murderous rampage across the Middle East. Initially called Al-Qaeda in Iraq, it became Isis or Isil in 2013, and then Islamic State after it claimed to have established a caliphate at the end of last summer.
It has played a prominent role in Syria’s civil war with the chaos enabling it to develop a reputation as one of the most extreme groups operating in the region, reports the New York Times.
However, its insistence on strict Sharia law and its focus on establishing a state rather than toppling President Bashar al-Assad have alienated the group from the larger rebel movement.
Reports from cities where Isis has taken control are bleak, with public executions, beheadings, kidnap, amputations, torture and beatings among tactics used to maintain control. Isis has long targeted journalists and activists, and has been known to use suicide attacks and land mines against its opposition.
A group or a geographical state?
After the fall of Mosul in 2014, some terrorism experts suggested that the militant group’s claim to statehood was no idle boast. The Washington Post said Islamic State “effectively governs a nation-size tract of territory that stretches from the eastern edge of the Syrian city of Aleppo to Fallujah in western Iraq – and now also includes the northern Iraqi city of Mosul”. Although the borders of the territory it controls has ebbed and flowed since then, its power has not been substantially diminished. The group views itself as its own state with administrative buildings, courts, street signs and even its own newspaper. Douglas Ollivant, of the New America Foundation, who advised the Obama and Bush administrations on Iraq, says it has “all the trappings of a state, just not an internationally recognised one”.
What does Islamic State want?
Having established a caliphate, Islamic State now believes that it is the duty of all Muslims to emigrate to it and renounce their citizenship of any other nation. It regards any form of government other than its own as anathema to Islam. According to Graeme Wood, Islamic State’s leaders believe they are on course for an apocalyptic battle with their enemies, from which they will emerge victorious. They foretell, he writes in The Atlantic, “that the armies of Rome [usually interpreted as any Christian or non-Islamic force] will mass to meet the armies of Islam in northern Syria; and that Islam’s final showdown with an anti-Messiah will occur in Jerusalem after a period of renewed Islamic conquest.” As such, Islamic State supporters actively welcome the prospect of western intervention, which they believe will hasten their own final victory.
Is it genuinely Islamic?
Islamic State claims to be the sole representative of true followers of Islam and has executed large numbers of Muslims whose understanding of the Koran differs from their own narrow interpretation. Barack Obama and David Cameron have both described the group as “unislamic” and surveys have found very little support for the group among western Muslims. But Wood argues that the religious foundation of the group should not be overlooked. “The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic,” he writes. “Very Islamic… Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it.”
Is Islamic State part of al-Qaeda?
Isis began as an al-Qaeda offshoot but was officially rejected by the group last year. Al-Qaeda has reportedly complained that Isis is too brutal and that its focus on establishing a caliphate has distracted from the push in Syria to topple President Assad. The rejection means al-Qaeda’s representation in Iraq is now limited, while Islamic State poses a significant challenge to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s control over the country.
Who leads Islamic State?
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of Islamic State, is now deemed one of the most powerful jihadi leaders in the world. He took over as leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2010 after its former leaders were killed in an attack by US and Iraqi troops, reports The Independent. Following the fate of his predecessors, he reportedly insists on extreme secrecy, sometimes wearing a mask as disguise. Baghdadi, also known as Abu Dua, is believed to be in his early 40s, with degrees in Islamic Studies, including poetry, history and genealogy. Born in Samarra, a largely Sunni city north of Baghdad, he was later held prisoner by the Americans in Bocca Camp in southern Iraq between 2005 and 2009.
Several sources in the Middle East claim that Baghdadi was seriously wounded in an airstrike and that his second-in-command Abu Alaa Afri took over as temporary leader. However, the Pentagon continues to deny that Baghdadi is injured.
The group’s leadership is almost exclusively made up of Iraqis, but it has gained thousands of volunteers from across the Middle East and the West. US intelligence officials have previously said there are around 31,000 Isis militants, with two thirds comprising foreign fighters. Kurdish leaders claim the total figure is much higher at around 200,000.
How is Islamic State funded?
The group made money through oil smuggling in Syria, racketeering and kidnappings, as well as donations from private jihadi networks in the Gulf, says the Financial Times. The militants have seized oilfields in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, made alliances with tribes to extract oil and were believed to be extorting taxes of up to $8m a month from businesses in Mosul before its takeover. After it seized Mosul last year, the group looted hundreds of millions of dollars from the city’s banks, making it the richest terrorist group in the world. The FT says the group has issued annual reports since 2012 detailing its numerical “successes”, including bombings, assassinations and new recruits, with the apparent aim of demonstrating its record to potential