A suicide bomber has killed six people in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The incident occurred in the southwestern Qala Bakhtiar neighborhood, and police say more than a dozen people were also injured – all of them civilians. In a Telegram post, Taliban rivals ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for “Muslims held in Taliban prisons.”
An ISIS Afghan affiliate, known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), is active in the country and has carried out several assaults, including in the Taliban stronghold Kandahar in March. Three people died and a dozen others sustained injuries in that attack, which targeted a line of bank customers gathered to collect their salaries.
The conflict between ISIS and the Taliban erupted in 2015 when a regional branch of ISIS clashed with its rivals over control of specific Afghan territories. The two sides were also backed by different and opposing splinter groups, often accelerating the violence. The Haqqani Network and al-Qaeda, for instance, supported the Taliban, while other minor factions backed ISIS.
Experts say that the Islamic State in Khorasan Province believes the Taliban is not extreme enough and that it fails to adhere to the principle of global Islamic unity, instead adopting a nationalist philosophy.
Figures show that since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following the US withdrawal in 2021, the number of deaths and terror attacks has steadily increased. ISKP, also known as ISIS-K, committed 262 terrorist offenses, killing 399 people, before the Taliban takeover, but the numbers post-Taliban rose to 283 attacks and 671 deaths. The Afghan Witness organization said the group targets ethnic groups in order to increase sectarianism and that most attacks take place where crowds or civilians usually gather, such as marketplaces, schools, hospitals, or religious services.
Last March, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Roza Otunbayeva, said ISIS-K posed “a growing threat” and questioned whether the Taliban had the resources to keep the group at bay. Additionally, human rights groups claim the Taliban is failing to “protect at-risk communities.” Nevertheless, Taliban forces increased the number of raids and arrests of alleged ISIS-K operatives last year, and the result was an immediate reduction in terror activity.
