Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Islamic State

Islamic State

Blood in the Abode of Peace: The attack on Kabul’s Sikhs

Fabrizio Foschini •

At a time when Afghans face a looming pandemic and worsening conflict, one recent event has stood out: the attack on the Sikh gurdwara in the Old City of Kabul one week ago. It was an unprecedented, sectarian attack on a peaceful, non-Muslim religious minority. 26 people were killed and 11 wounded, men, women and one child. […]

War and Peace Read more

Tajikistan government’s story about IS attack already crumbling

AAN • Thomas Ruttig •

Eurasianet, 8 November 2019 On 6 November, a 20-strong armed group masked individuals assaulted a border outpost at the Tajik-Uzbek border, according to Tajikistan’s authorities. It claimed the group had crossed over from Afghanistan’s Qala-ye Zal district of Kunduz province which was rejected by Afghan military officials in Kabul. The Russian and other governments used the report to […]

Recommended Reads Read more
Screenshot from a video of a ISKP training in Nangarhar published in 2015

Descent into chaos: Why did Nangarhar turn into an IS hub?

Borhan Osman •

Armed groups pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) have tried to establish a foothold in five of Afghanistan’s provinces, but only in Nangarhar have they succeeded. There, IS Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghanistan-Pakistan franchise of the Islamic State, landed on fertile ground with a fragmented insurgency, bickering provincial elites, a tradition of Salafi networks […]

War and Peace Read more

The Islamic State in ‘Khorasan’: How it began and where it stands now in Nangarhar

Borhan Osman •

The Islamic State’s local franchise in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the TUTAP protests in Kabul on 23 July 2016. The attack killed more than 80 people and injured over 230 others in Deh Mazang Square in western Kabul. The target of […]

War and Peace Read more
Road to Achin, one of the districts with a Daesh presence. Photo: AAN (2015).

External AAN Publication: Daesh and Taleban in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Oxford Analytica Daily Brief, 17 November 2015 Thomas Ruttig, “Afghan Taliban Contain Islamic States’ Regional Reach” Reported clashes between Islamic State group’s (ISG) fighters and Afghan security forces, and the appearance of ISG-style black flags, have raised concerns about the ISG threat in Afghanistan. However, many of the alleged sightings of ISG fighters are vague […]

External publications Read more

First wave of IS attacks? Claim and denial over the Jalalabad bombs

Borhan Osman • Kate Clark •

The suicide attack on the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad on 18 April 2015, which killed more than 30 people and injured at least 100 others, was condemned by the Taleban and claimed by the Islamic State (IS), or at least by a Facebook site purporting to represent IS, also known as Daesh. President Ashraf Ghani also […]

War and Peace Read more
Pro-IS/Daesh slogan on a wall at Kabul University. Photo from social media.

Messages in Chalk: ‘Islamic State’ haunting Afghanistan?

Borhan Osman •

Rumours of the presence of Islamic State (IS) elements in Afghanistan have repeatedly made it into the media over recent months, sparking public debate and adding to the anxiety about what course the insurgency might take. AAN researcher Borhan Osman says that IS has support among limited numbers of Afghan radical youth – although even […]

War and Peace Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up