Alarm over ISIS plans in Afghanistan as group gives civilians hard time

By: Mustafa Hamza

Threats posed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to civilians in Afghanistan are far greater than those posed by the group to the Afghan state.

ISIS fighters know that this will be a long war. This is why they easily recapture the villages they lose to Afghan troops soon after it is taken back from them.

When there is an army or police raid, ISIS fighters leave their positions and the land they occupy to other places.

The Afghan state usually thinks by forcing ISIS out of targeted villages, it is defeating it. It also considers the ISIS stampede out of the same villages a confession of defeat.

Soon, however, the same ISIS fighters return, stage attacks on state troops deployed in the liberated villages and force them to turn tail.

A video from Achin, the ISIS stronghold in the southern Nangarhar province, is testament to the brutal treatment the organization subjects civilians to.

The video shows two civilians accused of spying for the government kneeling in front of ISIS militants. One of them is then shot in the head and the other had his head cut off.

Shiites within the Hazara minority are also the target of the most brutal crimes by ISIS. So far, 84 Hazara Shiites were killed by the group.

ISIS had also recently attacked the Iraqi Embassy in Afghan capital, Kabul, killing everybody inside. It also claimed responsibility for another attack on a military hospital in Kabul.

ISIS militants, wearing medical uniforms, entered the hospital and opened their gunfire on people inside. The ensuing battle with Afghan police lasted for hours, but it left 38 people dead and dozens of others injured.

Apart from unveiling the ugly face of this venomous organization, these crimes portend a long war of attrition that can seep out of Afghanistan and into neighboring Pakistan.

Most of the 80 families that used to live in Momand Dara District, east of Nangarhar Province, had to leave their homes when ISIS overran the district. According to the government, the families had fled ISIS violence and torture.

Western analysts warn, meanwhile, against ISIS plans in Afghanistan. Some of them say the group will turn the northern part of the restive state into a logistical center where it can receive recruits, train them and then send them to other areas.

Having been defeated in Syria and Iraq, the same analysts say ISIS views Afghanistan as a safe refuge where it can plan attacks on the US.

However, some Afghan observers downplay ISIS influence in their country. The organization, they say, was allowed to take root and grow in Afghanistan only to prolong the war already raging on in it.

Nonetheless, those allowing ISIS to get a toehold in Afghanistan will soon discover that they made a miscalculation, said Afghan military expert Abdulsattar Aziz. ISIS will be totally rejected by all Afghans, he added.

Aziz attributed ISIS success in controlling large swaths of land in his country to the weakness of the authorities.

ISIS militants are gathering in Afghanistan before they start attacking Russia, said Abdel Meguid Raiesani, another Afghan expert.

He added that ISIS is gaining power in Afghanistan because of the collapse of the Taliban after the death of its leader Mullah Omar.

Raiesani said most Taliban fighters had already joined ISIS. He noted that ex-Taliban fighters want the war to keep going until the downfall of the government in Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

In saying this, however, Raiesani seems to have forgotten that ideological differences between ISIS and Taliban might prevent a large number of ex-Taliban fighters from joining ISIS.