Who is IS-K? –
The Islamic State group at large was officially founded in late 2014, when Sunni extremists fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Syria swore allegiance to a “caliphate.”
Supposedly the heart of a future universal Muslim homeland under the black banner of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s group seized part of Iraq and eastern Syria .
This territory was eventually recaptured by US-backed forces, but not before inspiring fallout elsewhere, notably in “Khorasan”, a region comprising parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
Jean-Luc Marret, of the French think tank Foundation for Strategic job function email database Research, describes the IS-K as “a conglomerate of former jihadist organizations, including Uyghurs and Uzbeks, and Taliban defectors.”
Afghanistan, but their authority could be destabilized by IS-K WAKIL KOHSAR AFP
The IS-K claimed that Friday’s Kunduz bombing was carried out by a Uyghur, a member of China’s persecuted Muslim minority, underlining the regional nature of the threat.
According to UN estimates, the IS-K has between 500 and a few thousand fighters in northern and eastern Afghanistan, including cells under the noses of the Taliban in the capital Kabul.
Since 2020, the group has been reputed to be led by a certain “Shahab al-Mujahir”, whose nom de guerre suggests that he arrived in the region from the Arab world, but his origins remain unclear.