The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in a report to the United Nations Security Council warned that IS had been attracting foreign fighters from with the region in Afghanistan.

He warned that the lull in IS-directed international attacks “may be temporary” and said Afghanistan remains the best-established conflict zone among those attracting foreign extremist fighters from within the region.

The Islamic State affiliate appeared in Afghanistan shortly after the group’s core fighters swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, carving out a self-styled caliphate, or Islamic empire, in around a third of both countries. The Afghan affiliate refers to itself as the Khorasan Province, a name applied to parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia during the Middle Ages.

Despite IS’ defeat in its Iraqi and Syrian heartlands, the extremist group has reverted to staging frequent insurgency-type attacks in both countries against security forces and civilians.

The IS affiliate in Afghanistan initially numbered just a few dozen fighters, mainly Pakistani Taliban driven from their bases across the border and disgruntled Afghan Taliban attracted to IS’ more extreme ideology.

Arezo News Website – Salimi