After Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the United States could face a possible terror attack carried out by Al Qaeda or ISIS-K, ISKP or IS-Khorasan in the next six to eighteen months, it has been revealed that a large number of abandoned allies of the US in Afghanistan have joined ISIS, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
This is all due to the US forces withdrawal from Afghanistan and in that process, a large number of their ‘abandoned’ spies and allies in order to survive have joined hands with the radical jihadist Islamist outfits like ISIS.
But the irony is that the Taliban which is in itself is a puritanical Islamist regime, sees ISIS as a direct threat to its authority in Afghanistan.
According to the WSJ, the Taliban has claimed that the number of such US allies are now, defecting to ISIS which means they now bring tradecraft, warfare techniques, and intelligence gathering expertise that could seriously undermine the Taliban government which is already vulnerable as the new regime do not have any money to govern.
What is now troubling the US is that former Afghan national army officials and men from the Afghan Republic’s Intelligence and Military have also have joined the ISIS-K in recent weeks after the Taliban revealed that an army officer was killed in the past week while fighting the Taliban.
Ex-head of the National Directorate of Security, Rahmatullah Nabil, said, “In some areas, ISIS has become very attractive. If there were a resistance, they (former Afghan security and defence forces) would have joined the resistance. For the time being, ISIS is the only other armed group.”
After the US forces left Afghanistan, in perhaps the worst form of retreat and abandoning of its allies, thousands of ex-soldiers, former police officials, and Afghan Republic Intelligence officers suddenly were unemployed under constant threat of being killed by the Taliban despite being assured of amnesty
So these intelligence officers and ex-officials who worked in the National Directorate of Security who have no money were provided with large sums of money and assurance of security against the Taliban regime by ISIS.
The Taliban and ISIS are both followers of Islam but the former follow Salafi Islam and the Taliban adhere to the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam or Deobandi movement based in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh.
Though once rivals, as per the WSJ report, US Intelligence did provide information to the Taliban, but they are reluctant to consider ISIS-K as a major threat because it would give the latter credence in a place where any form of weakness is viewed as a sign of defeat.
Senior Taliban leader Mawlawi Zubair remarked, “We are not faced with a threat nor are we worried about them. There is no need, not even a tiny need, for us to seek assistance from anyone against ISIS.” He further added, “In the current situation, we are not dealing with a few difficulties, we are facing many. If we get rid of all our economic and administrative problems, ISIS will disappear in 15 days in all of Afghanistan.”
But what is unimaginable is that after the US left Afghanistan the Biden administration willfully handed out a list of American citizens, Afghan allies, biometric data, and green card holders to the Taliban which is not known for its amnesty. This blunder is now been seen as the reason why many former allies who were trained by the US have now joined ISIS-K because there are many reports of the Taliban executing army officers, police, and intelligence personals as an act of revenge.
With access to the biometric devices, along with weapons, vehicles, and ammunition left behind by the fleeing Americans Taliban started going door-to-door in search of Afghan interpreters and US allies and as a matter of survival many have joined ISIS.
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