A little more than a month after dropping a Western-supported government in Kabul, the new Afghan Taliban ruler faced an internal enemy who had adopted many urban war tactics which marked a successful guerrilla campaign.
The deadly attack at Kabul Airport last month and a series of bomb explosions in the eastern city of Jalalabad, all claimed by local affiliates of the Islamic State, have underlined the threat to the stability of the harsh terrorist groups that remain not covered by the Taliban.
While spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had underestimated the threat, saying this week that the Islamic state did not have an effective presence in Afghanistan, the commander on the ground did not mention the threat very lightly.
Two members of the motion intelligence service that investigated several recent attacks in Jalalabad said the tactic showed the group remained dangerous, even if it did not have enough fighters and resources to seize the region.
Using a sticky bomb – magnetic bombs usually stick to the bottom of the car – the attack targets Taliban members in the exact same way with the Taliban itself used to hit officials and civil society leaders to disrupt the former government.
“We are worried about this sticky bomb that we used to target our enemies in Kabul.
We are worried about our leadership because they can target them if they don’t succeed in controlling them,” said one of the Taliban intelligence officials.
The Islamic state in Khorasan, the name was taken from ancient name for the region which included a modern Afghanistan, first appeared at the end of 2014 but has declined from its peak of around 2018 after a series of large losses caused by Taliban and US forces.
Taliban security forces in Nangarhar said they had killed three members of the movement on Wednesday night and intelligence officials said the movement still maintained the ability to cause problems through small-scale attacks.
“Their main structure is broken and they are now divided into small groups to carry out attacks,” said one of them.
Funding dried to Taliban has said repeatedly that they will not allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for attacks in other countries.
But some Western analysts believe that the return of Islamic groups to power has refreshed groups such as ISIS-K and Al Qaeda, which has made their Afghanistan base when the last Taliban ruled the country.
“In Afghanistan, the return of Taliban is a big victory for Islamists,” said Rohan Gunaratna, a professor of security studies at the Nanyang Singapore Technology University.
“They have celebrated the return of the Taliban, so I think Afghanistan is a new theater.” Isis-k is believed to draw a lot of his fighters from the ranks of the Taliban or the Taliban Pakistani version, known as TTP, but many operating ways remain a little understood.
It has been against the Taliban for the route of smuggling and other economic interests but also supports global Caliphives under Islamic law, in contrast to the Taliban that insisted on having no interest anywhere outside Afghanistan.
Most analysts, as well as the United Nations, the strength of Peg Isis-K under 2,000 fighters, compared with as many as 100,000 in the disposal of Taliban.
The ISIS-K was swollen with detainees released when Afghan Prison was opened by the Taliban when they swept the country.
According to the June report by the UN Security Council, the financial association and ISIS-K logistics against its parent organization in Syria has weakened, even though it retains several communication channels.
“Funding support for the Khorasan branch of the core is believed to have effectively dry out,” said the report.
However, the report said the signs of the division in the Taliban, which have begun to emerge, can encourage more warriors to defect when the war rebellion tries to reshape peaceful administration.
“Stay active and dangerous, especially if capable, by positioning himself as the only pure rejection group in Afghanistan, to recruit non-satisfied Taliban and other terrorists swell his rank,” the United Nations said.
Islamic countries use Taliban’s own tactics to attack Afghan’s new rulers
