The Demons have demons..



Demons...


Like everyone else who’s remotely sane, I’ve been horrified by the mass murder of American soldiers and innocent Afghan civilians in Kabul on Thursday, 26 August, 2021. As of the time I’m writing this, the toll was 170 dead and 155 injured. That number is sure to grow higher as time goes on and we get more information.


But what I find fascinating is that the organization taking credit for the attack is not the Taliban but rather “ISIS-K,” an off-shoot of the Islamic State that ran parts of Syria and Iraq until recently. The “K,” I gather, is for Khorasan, a region in Central Asia known for its cultural importance in several different Islamic civilizations.


However, the idea that it was ISIS-K and not the Taliban who launched the attacks is interesting. Of course, we don’t know for certain that ISIS-K really was behind them, and we don’t know the degree to which the Taliban might have used the organization (or just its name) to conceal its own hand in the murders. 


But, whatever its role in the massacres on Thursday, ISIS-K really does exist. And, according to CNN and other news outlets, it hates the Taliban and is competing with it for control of not only Afghanistan but perhaps all of Central Asia.(1)  And, bad as the Taliban seems to be, ISIS-K appears to be worse. It’s been responsible for scores of bombings and killings across Central Asia since its formation in 2015.(2) 


All of which means that the Talibani now face an internal threat in the form of a fanatical band of murderous zealots who appear to be able to strike whenever and wherever they choose, and whose effectiveness will be vastly increased now the the United States is not present to repress it. 


At least some pundits are suggesting the Taliban is going to need help to deal with its ISIS-K problem, and that help may come from the United States.(3) President Biden himself seem to at least hint at that in his speech to the nation on Thursday.(4)


Will the Taliban be able to accept such support from an Infidel Power? Who knows? But it is clear that the group greatly needs help from someone, and no matter who provides it, or doesn’t, the Talibani’s pretensions of utter independence and total autonomy have proven to be hollow. And, I, at least, wonder if worse for them is not on the way.


~mjt






Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker


Sources:


1. “What to know about ISIS-K, the terror group claiming responsibility for the Kabul airport attack” By Rob Picheta, CNN, Updated 10:52 AM ET, Fri August 27, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/27/asia/isis-k-explainer-afghanistan-kabul-attacks-cmd-intl/index.html


2. “What We Know About ISIS-K, The Group Behind The Kabul Attack,” Joe Hernandez, NPR, All Things Considered  Updated August 27, 20211:18 PM ET, https://www.npr.org/2021/08/26/1031349674/isis-k-taliban-who-what-you-need-to-know.


3. “Once Enemies, U.S. and Taliban Find Common Ground Against ISIS” By Archana Chaudhary, Philip Heijmans, and Colum Murphy, Bloomberg,  August 27, 2021, 6:01 AM CDT, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-27/once-enemies-u-s-and-taliban-find-common-ground-against-isis


4. “Remarks by President Biden on the Terror Attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport,” The White House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/26/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terror-attack-at-hamid-karzai-international-airport/ 


#Afghanistan #Taliban #ISIS-K

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