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ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack at the gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, on August 27 that killed 13 US troops and at least 170 Afghans. The chaos that followed the suicide bombing undermined the credibility of the Taliban, which has been trying hard to ensure security and stability around Kabul’s airport as the US and its allies complete the evacuation.
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As the Taliban entered Kabul almost unopposed as the US and its allies, including Afghanistan’s ousted government, frantically tried to evacuate the country, the Taliban assured the US they would protect Kabul and the airport and provide much-needed stability to the besieged city.
The ISIS attack directly undermines that message and opens the question of whether the Taliban can exercise its authority and control over the resistive population with ISIS-K in attacks and the growing resistance movement in the Panjshir Valley.
The instability likely caused by the rise of ISIS-K undermines the main argument for the Taliban in signing the 2020 Doha agreement with the United States, under which the group assured the US that Afghanistan would no longer be a safe haven for terrorists to launch attacks against America and its allies. In return, the US or its allies withdrew their troops altogether.
As the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces moves swiftly, ISIS-K attacks on airports are strategic and calculated.
“ISIS attacks may serve several purposes, including disrupting US operations at airports and humiliating the Taliban as the Taliban try to distance themselves from the terrorist group and portray itself as capable of providing security across the country,” said Charles Thorson, security analyst at RANE, told Fox News, Friday (3/9/2021).
“The attack may also have the long-term goal of encouraging recruitment and reviving the image of ISIS within the global jihadi community amid the group’s downfall in Iraq and Syria,” Thorson continued.
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