Mehr News Agency has presented a report about the current situation of ISIL's increasing activities in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power, particularly during the past recent months. The report comes as follows;
For the first time, in January 2015, ISIL officially announced the formation of its Khorasan branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan by publishing a video clip. In the first half of 2015, the terrorist group managed to control large areas of eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
Although ISIL was weakened by the efforts of the former Afghan government in 2019, the terrorist group resumed its activities in 2020 by taking advantage of internal tensions in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has repeatedly claimed that ISIL has lost its destructive power in Afghanistan, but the developments in the past three months indicate that the terrorist group still has enough power to make Afghanistan unsafe and unstable.
Although it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of ISIL terrorist elements in Afghanistan, according to some sources, ISIL-Khorasan had about 4,000 terrorists back in 2016, the era when the terrorist group was enjoying great power. Currently, most estimates show the number of ISIL terrorists in Afghanistan is around 3,000.
It seems that ISIL-Khorasan has now focused on weakening the military power and legitimacy of the Taliban and has become the Taliban's Achilles heel.
Despite regional countries' and international organizations' concern over the expansion of ISIL activities in Afghanistan, senior Taliban officials have repeatedly stated that the reports about the activities of the terrorist group in the country have been exaggerated and that ISIL is being eliminated.
This is despite the fact that ISIL is challenging the Taliban's political and ideological authority, and by adopting new strategies and operational methods, is also an obstacle to the Taliban's efforts over reducing economic problems and being internationally recognized.
MP/5868613