Significance of ISIS escalation against Taliban leaders in Faizabad

Mohamed Yosry

Since the first day of the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan, ISIS has been playing a policy of domination with the movement to prove that it is able to compete and control in its own way. The terrorist organization is proceeding in its strategy against the Taliban according to two mechanisms, namely that the Taliban represents an established authority like other authorities and governments in Arab and Islamic countries that are considered to rule by other than what God has revealed, which is what the organization declares explicitly.

Most recently was an operation that targeted the memorial service of a leader in the Taliban government in Badakhshan province, and this appeared in the official ISIS publications, including the Khorasan magazine, which dedicated its third issue to explaining this trend against the Afghan movement.

The magazine devoted a number of files in which it denied that the Taliban represented an Islamic state as appears in its slogans and speeches.

The magazine emphasized that the Taliban violated the Islamic faith – from its point of view – and described them as worshipers of graves and shrines. It also accused the movement of leaving Islamic jihad and allying with the West, and it even explicitly called for the killing of everyone who sympathized with the movement in application of the principle of loyalty and disavowal according to the vision of the terrorist organization.

Applied to reality

ISIS has translated this clear theoretical aspect in its publications, including the Voice of Khorasan magazine, during its dealings with the Taliban since the first day of the movement’s accession to power in August 2021.

At the organizational level, ISIS continues to strike at the heart of the Taliban movement, taking advantage of the traditional dispute within it between the hawks and doves, or the jihadists and the political bureau. The terrorist organization usually flirts with the jihadist wing, succeeding a lot in attracting its members, who were the first building block upon which ISIS Khorasan Province was formed from those who cling to jihad and bear arms and reject the behavior of the movement as a state or its sitting at negotiating tables with enemies.

Among them was the first leader of the ISIS branch in Afghanistan, Khorasan Province leader Hafiz Saeed Khan, who was a prominent member of the Taliban movement.

This policy represents a painful blow to the Taliban that works to dismantle it from within or at least fuel splits within it.

At the same time, the organization also directs strikes against the movement from abroad through two ways. One of them is carrying out terrorist operations against those protected by the movement in order to prove the latter’s inability to control security over the country, which was evident from the first day of the Taliban’s control of power in the attack on Kabul Airport in August 2021 that resulted in the killing of 10 American soldiers and the injury of dozens in the vicinity of the attack, in addition to a series of attacks on the Shiite community, which the Taliban pledged to protect.

The second is dealing with the movement as a ruling authority, like other governments that the organization considers to rule by other than what God has revealed. Therefore, ISIS worked to strike the leaders and members of the Taliban, in addition to individual attacks targeting elements loyal to the movement. During the last ten months, the terrorist organization escalated its attacks to targeting officials and leaders and carried out a number of operations against them, for example, targeting the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul twice in a row, once in January 2023 and the second in March of the same year.

The same month witnessed the organization announcing the assassination of Balkh Governor Dawood Muzammil, who was affiliated with the Taliban government. Two days later, it carried out an attack on a press conference in Balkh province, killing six Afghan journalists.

Faizabad

The recent Faizabad operation comes within the second path considering the Taliban as a government like other governments and not just a competing group. The operation is considered one of the most dangerous operations against the Taliban since its seizure of power due to the number of leaders who were included in the attack in one place.

ISIS announced the killing and wounding of 70 Taliban members, including security and military leaders and political officials, most notably a commander in the army and the acting minister of economy in the Taliban government, Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, in the city of Faizabad while a large number of citizens were participating in the memorial service for acting Badakhshan Governor Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi.