Daesh cells operate under nose of US forces

Middle-class Afghans turned (Deobandi) militants have assisted the banned takfiri terrorist group Daesh (ISIS)’s expansion from its stronghold in Afghanistan’s restive east to Kabul and also to Pakistan. All this is being done despite the heavy presence of US and allied forces.

Daesh has claimed nearly 20 attacks across Kabul in 18 months, with cells including students, professors and shopkeepers evading Afghan and US security forces to bring carnage to the highly fortified city.
It is an alarming development for Kabul’s war-weary civilians and beleaguered security forces, who are already struggling to beat back the resurgent Taliban, as well as the US counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan. Similar reports are received from Pakistan also.
“This is not just a group that has a rural bastion in eastern Afghanistan — it is staging high casualty, high visibility attacks in the nation’s capital and I think that’s something to be worried about,” said analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Centre in Washington.
The Daesh-Khorasan Province (IS-K), the Middle East group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, emerged in the region in 2014, largely made up of disaffected Deobandi fighters from the Taliban and other jgroups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. Daesh has claimed many attacks in Pakistan also. It claimed its first attack in Kabul in the summer of 2016.
There is no shortage of recruits, analysts say. Daesh has successfully tapped a rich vein of extremism in Afghanistan that has existed for decades and crosses socio-economic groups — fanned by growing internet access among urban youth.