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Graphic shows factfile of Islamic State Khorasan.
GN41744EN

TERROR

Multiple casualties after explosion at Kabul airport

By Jordi Bou

August 26, 2021 - U.S. officials say an explosion has occurred outside Kabul’s airport, after Western nations had warned of a possible attack there from the so-called Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

American military and intelligence analysts say threats from the Islamic State Khorasan group – also known as ISIS-K – include a bomb-laden truck, suicide bombers infiltrating the crowd outside Hamid Karzai International Airport and mortar strikes against the airfield.

ISIS-K was formed by disaffected fighters from Pakistani Taliban, following the creation in 2014 of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria by the so-called Islamic State group.

ISIS-K is said to have around 1,500-2,000 fighters in Nuristan, Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, with cells across Afghanistan, including Kabul.

The group is headed since Jun 2020 by Shahab al-Muhajir. The ISIS-K founding emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2016.

ISIS-K criticises the Taliban’s version of Islamic rule as insufficiently hard line, and denounces their deal with the U.S. over troop withdrawals.

ISIS-K was responsible for 77 attacks in Afghanistan in the first four months of this year – up from 21 in the same period in 2020, according to the UN. The school bombing in Kabul in May 2021, killed 80 schoolgirls.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 26/08/2021; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: IS propaganda image
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