Taliban security forces in Afghanistan asserted that they had extinguished a critical Islamic State commander in an eastern province adjoining Pakistan. An official Taliban media outlet noted that counter-terrorism forces in Nangarhar had intruded into a hideout of Islamic State Khorasan, also understood as IS-K, an Afghan-based fellow of the transnational extremist group.
The Al-Mersaad outlet stated that its activity had resulted in the slaying of “Zakirullah … known as Abu Sher” and recognised him as IS Khorasan’s military commander for the border province’s Achin district. The media report stated that “Taliban special forces” had completed the operation in the Mohmand Dara district.
The Taliban returned to administration in 2021 when all the United States-led NATO forces retreated from the country after almost 20 years of engagement in the Afghan war. U.S. forces regularly performed operations against IS Khorasan and destroyed several of its key leaders. The extremist group heightened suicide bombings and other raids against security forces and members of the Afghan Shiite community after the Taliban seizure. The violence has extinguished hundreds of people, including major Taliban leaders and religious scholars.
Taliban authorities express their sustained military efforts against IS Khorasan shelters have significantly impaired its ability to pose a threat to Afghanistan and further. De facto Afghan authorities have blamed Pakistan and Tajikistan for “training and nurturing” IS Khorasan operatives on their respective grounds. Both neighbours of Afghanistan have overlooked the accusation as frivolous and, in turn, accuse the de facto rulers in Kabul of failing to control transnational terrorist groups from operating their territory to threaten regional stability.
A quarterly U.S. Department of Defense information made public in late May reported that Afghanistan-based IS Khorasan had “demonstrated improved transnational terrorism capabilities through large-scale, multiple death attacks” in the region. The report noted a January suicide bombing in neighbouring Iran’s Kerman city of a monument for a top Iranian military commander that destroyed at least 100 mourners. It said that IS Khorasan gunmen stormed a show venue near Moscow in March, eliminating at least 140 people in what was defined as the worst terrorist attack in Russia in 20 years.
In March, General Michael Kurilla, the leader of the U.S. Central Command, vowed to Congress on the growing terrorist threat stemming from Afghanistan, cautioning that Islamic State affiliates “retain the capability and the will” to strike the United States and its allies in Europe in as little as six months.
The U.S. quarterly report commented that despite pledging to ban terrorist groups from a sanctuary in Afghanistan, the Taliban “persisted in privately providing shelter to al-Qaeda senior leaders while publicly rejecting that al-Qaeda uses its territory to pose dangers to outside countries.” In a January report, the United Nations Security Council stated that IS Khorasan “has continued to pose a significant threat in Afghanistan and the area despite losses in territory, casualties, and high corrosion among senior and mid-tier leadership figures.”
