In a training camp of the Islamic State organization in Khorasan (IS-K), in eastern Afghanistan, in August 2021. ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
The use of the encrypted messaging network Telegram by the Islamic State in Khorasan (EI-K), the Afghan subsidiary of the jihadist organization, to claim responsibility for the attack perpetrated on March 22 in the suburbs of Moscow, is not a surprise for Western intelligence services. If Russian President Vladimir Putin and his security services refuse for the moment to mention this press release, it is indeed through this channel that the group carries out its increasingly deadly attacks.
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EI-K embodies the regionalization strategy followed by the jihadist international since it lost its base in Iraq and Syria. A restructuring facilitated by the instability of the unstable Afghan-Pakistani zone.
In July 2021, according to a UN report submitted to the Security Council, ISIS numbers in Afghanistan were estimated “between 500 and a few thousand fighters”. Its presence in the region, under the name of Islamic State in Khorasan – an old term designating a region encompassing part of South Asia, Iran and Central Asia – has been documented since 2015. Still after the UN, if the return to power of the Afghan Taliban in mid-2021 has reduced its field of action in Afghanistan – but not its capacity for action – EI-K has, since , reconstituted from bases in the countries of Central Asia, across the border.
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Vladimir Putin was already alarmed, on October 15, 2021, “about the ambitions and strengths of the Islamic State jihadist group in Afghanistan”, highlighting “the combat experience” acquired by its members in Iraq and Syria. “IS leaders are preparing plans to extend their influence in the countries of Central Asia and the Russian regions by stoking ethno-confessional conflicts and religious hatred,” said the head of the Kremlin, wondering about the capacity of the Afghan Taliban to defeat these armed groups.
Reinforcement of Pakistani Taliban
The “Emirate of Khorasan”, in Afghanistan, initially relied on insurgents who had broken with the Taliban and other radical groups scattered on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Defectors who sought, thanks to this new banner, to control small local territories. Having subsequently received reinforcements from the Pakistani Taliban chased out of the tribal areas by Islamabad's army, ISIS established its bridgehead in the mountainous district of Achin, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, the only where the organization will manage to establish itself sustainably, with that neighboring Kunar, before succeeding in gaining a foothold in the border areas with the countries of Central Asia.
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