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Afghanistan: Extremism & Terrorism

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Afghanistan: Extremism & Terrorism Afghanistan: Extremism & Terrorism On September 7, 2021, the Taliban officially announced the appointments within its caretaker government. At the helm of the movement is Haibatullah Akhundzada, who will serve as supreme leader. Mullah Muhammad Hassan was named the acting prime minister, with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi named deputy prime ministers. The top security post was given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, who will serve as acting minister of the interior, a role in which he will have extensive authority over policing and legal matters. Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob, who is the oldest son of Taliban founder Mullah Muhammad Omar, is named the acting defense minister. The government is exclusively male, with many positions filled with veterans from their hardline movement in the early nineties. (Sources: New York Times, Associated Press) The appointments came a month after the Taliban began its offensive against major Afghan cities on August 6, 2021. By August 16, the Taliban laid siege to the presidential palace and took complete control of Kabul, declaring the war in Afghanistan had ended. The last U.S. troops flew out of Kabul on August 30, ending a 20-year war that took the lives of 2,500 American troops and 240,000 Afghans and cost about $2 trillion. By the evening of August 30, 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul. Before departing, U.S. troops destroyed more than 70 aircraft, dozens of armored vehicles, and disabled air defenses that were used to counteract jihadist attacks in the country. The final withdrawal of U.S. troops was not a celebration of a more secure Afghanistan, but marked the beginning of a new Taliban regime. (Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, Reuters) Following the takeover of Kabul, the Taliban claimed it would take on a more “moderate” approach in their ruling of the country, and that women would be allowed to have roles in public life in observance of “Islamic law.” Despite these claims, protests erupted throughout the country, with the Taliban moving quickly to suppress dissent. On August 18, anti-Taliban protests broke out in Jalalabad, leading to the death of three and injuring more than a dozen others. On September 4, Afghan women took to the streets of Kabul where they were met with violent Taliban guards who allegedly hit women with electric tasers, rifle butts, metal clubs, and tools. Despite the violence, the protests continued on September 7 and 8, with the Taliban detaining and beating several Afghan journalists who were covering the protests. (Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, CNN, Reuters) On August 22, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced that ISIS posed a significant threat to Americans in Afghanistan. According to reports from U.S. intelligence and military officials, as the Biden administration attempted to evacuate American citizens and U.S. personnel from Afghanistan, ISIS’s Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), would likely seek to exploit the security vacuum in the country and plot attacks against American targets. A few days later, on August 26, attacks were carried out at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside of the airport, near Abbey Gate. Following the blast, another assailant opened fire on the crowds, with a second blast going off near the Baron hotel adjacent to the airport. According to media reports, as many as 170 people and 13 U.S. service members were killed, with an additional 200 wounded. The Taliban condemned the attack. That evening, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released by its Amaq News Agency on their Telegram channel. (Sources: Washington Post, Telegraph, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Washington Post, Washington Post, New York Times, Independent, Business Insider) In response to the Kabul airport attacks, on the evening of August 27, 2021, the U.S. military carried out a drone strike in Nangarhar, targeting and killing two “high profile” ISIS-K targets. According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the targets were “ISIS-K planners and facilitators.” Another ISIS-K member was wounded in the attack. On August 29, U.S. forces conducted another airstrike against an ISIS-K target in Kabul. The strike targeted a vehicle that, according to U.S. Central Command spokesperson, Navy Captain Bill Urban, posed “an imminent threat” to Kabul airport. The vehicle allegedly contained substantial amounts of explosive material. The driver, a suspected suicide bomber was killed in the airstrike. According to media sources, ten civilians were also killed. However, on September 17, the Pentagon acknowledged that the drone strike was a tragic mistake. Following an inquiry conducted by the U.S. military’s Central Command, the alleged explosives in the vehicle were most likely water bottles, and a second explosion in a Kabul neighborhood was most likely due to a propane or gas tank. The driver of the vehicle, Zemari Ahmadi, was a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group and had no connection to ISIS-K. Ahmadi had a quick interaction with some people in an alleged ISIS safe house which military analysts falsely concluded was a direct connection to the militant group. (Sources: CNN, NBC News, New York Times) ISIS-K continued their attacks into September, detonating a number of explosives over the weekend of September 18 and 19 in Jalalabad. According to on-the-ground sources, the explosions killed at least three people and injured about 20 others. Of a total of six explosions over the weekend, one attack targeted a Taliban vehicle that killed one child and injured two others, including a Taliban member. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the explosions, claiming that more than 35 Taliban members were killed or wounded. The attacks targeted Taliban members as ISIS-K opposes the Taliban as they consider the government to not be extreme enough. (Sources: Reuters, Washington Post) Afghanistan: Extremism & Terrorism Overview Afghanistan—officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan—has a tumultuous history of uprisings against the government, guerilla warfare, and foreign occupation dating back to the 19th century. The country now faces violent insurgencies by the Taliban and ISIS. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan suffered a record number of casualties in 2015, with more than 3,500 civilians killed and almost 7,500 wounded. (Sources: CNN, New York Times) The Soviet invasion and Afghan civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s brought thousands of Islamic fighters into the country, including al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden used Afghanistan as a base of operations from which to build his al-Qaeda network. He built alliances between al-Qaeda and local militants, and later the Taliban, to provide al-Qaeda protection from Afghan authorities and other hostile forces. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996, capitalizing on the country’s decentralized government control after the civil war. Al-Qaeda continued to use Afghanistan as a base until the United States dislodged the Taliban in 2001. Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters fought alongside each other against the U.S.-led coalition, leading then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair to declare in November 2001 that the groups had “virtually merged.” A leaked 2011 Joint Task Force Guantanamo report described a “unification” between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. (Sources: New York Times, Taliban, Ahmed Rashid, p. 22, 90, CNN, Weekly Standard) Since being driven from the government in 2001, Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for deadly bombings and other terror attacks across the country targeting foreign embassies and NATO’s headquarters, as well as Afghan security forces. The Taliban have also coordinated with the Haqqani network and al-Qaeda. In September 2015, the Taliban began capturing territory for the first time since it was removed from power. (Sources: Reuters, Reuters, Bloomberg News, New York Times) ISIS has declared Afghanistan and Pakistan to be a singular region called the Khorasan Province. ISIS has initiated several suicide bombings and other attacks in the country, including a July 2016 double suicide bombing that killed more than 80 people. The majority of Afghan extremist groups have rejected ISIS, according to the U.S. State Department. The Taliban in particular have rejected ISIS’s encroachment into their territory, and the two groups have violently clashed. (Sources: NBC News, CNN, U.S. Department of State, Diplomat, Wall Street Journal) Afghan security has worked with international forces to build and maintain the country’s security infrastructure and combat extremist groups. NATO ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014, but continues to support Afghan security forces. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama announced in 2015 that U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan at least through the end of his presidency in 2017 to assist Afghan security in combating the Taliban, ISIS, and other violent extremists. President Donald Trump set a deadline of May 1, 2021, to withdraw U.S. forces from the country. His successor, President Joe Biden, pledged to withdraw U.S. forces by September 11, 2021. As of July 6, 2021, the United States had completed more than 90 percent of its withdrawal from the country. Despite Afghan successes against the insurgency, the Taliban have continued their bloody rebellion and seized new territory from the Afghan government. (Sources: Guardian, New York Times, New York Times, Bloomberg News, CNBC, New York Times) Radicalization and Foreign Fighters Radicalization Several extremist organizations operate in Afghanistan. A 2015 study by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) found extensive activity by extremist and Islamist groups within the schools. According to AREU researcher Ali Mohammad Ali, Islamist groups such as Hizb ut- Tahrir, Jamiat-e-Islah, and Tehrik-e-Islami recruit teachers who then recruit students.
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