By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent and Reuters
Explainer: The bombings that have claimed dozens of lives near Kabul airport are being blamed on ISIS-K so who are they?
A man looks at items after a school bombing claimed the lives of dozens of schoolgirls in Kabul last May. Photo: AFP / 2021 Anadolu Agency
Isis-K - or to give it its more accurate name, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) - is the regional affiliate of Isis (or so-called Islamic State) that is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack overnight, the group's Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.
It was set up in January 2015 at the height of IS's power in Iraq and Syria, before its self-declared caliphate was defeated and dismantled by a US-led coalition.
It recruits from both Afghan and Pakistani jihadists, especially defecting members of the Afghan Taliban who don't see their own organisation as extreme enough.
How extreme is extreme?
Isis-K have been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in recent years, targeting girls' schools, hospitals and even a maternity ward where they reportedly shot dead pregnant women and nurses.
Unlike the Taliban, whose interest is confined to Afghanistan, Isis-K are part of the global IS network that seeks to carry out attacks on western, international and humanitarian targets wherever they can reach them.
Where are they located?
Isis-K are based in the eastern province of Nangarhar, close to drug- and people-smuggling routes in and out of Pakistan.
At its height the group numbered about 3000 fighters - but it has suffered significant casualties in clashes with both the US and Afghan security forces, and also with the Taliban.
Are they linked to the Taliban?
Peripherally yes, via a third party, the Haqqani network.
According to researchers, there are strong links between Isis-K and the Haqqani network, which in turn is closely linked to the Taliban.
The man now in charge of security in Kabul is Khalil Haqqani who has had a $US5 million bounty on his head.
Dr Sajjan Gohel from the Asia Pacific Foundation has been monitoring the militant networks in Afghanistan for years.
He says "several major attacks between 2019 and 2021 involved collaboration between Isis-K, the Taliban's Haqqani network and other terror groups based in Pakistan".
When the Taliban took over Kabul on 15 August, the group released large numbers of prisoners from Pul-e-Charki jail, reportedly including IS and al-Qaeda militants. These people are now at large.
But ISIS-K have major differences with the Taliban, accusing them of abandoning Jihad and the battlefield in favour of a negotiated peace settlement hammered out in "posh hotels" in Doha, Qatar.
IS militants now represent a major security challenge for the incoming Taliban government, something the Taliban leadership shares in common with western intelligence agencies.
The ISIS-K group now pose a challenge for the Taliban leadership. Photo: AFP or licensors
At a glance
- Islamic State Khorasan Province, named after an old term for the region, first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 / early 2015 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.
- Some experts on Islamist militancy in the region say it was founded by hardline elements of the Pakistani Taliban who fled into Afghanistan when Pakistan security forces cracked down on them.
- From the beginning, the hardline Sunni Muslim group generally known as Daesh challenged the Taliban for control of key areas on the border with Pakistan associated with smuggling of narcotics and other commodities.
- At the same time, it also carried out a series of suicide bombings in Kabul and other cities against both government and foreign military targets, apparently aimed at establishing its credentials as a more violent and extreme militant movement.
- Its attacks ranged from the brutal executions of village elders to the killings of Red Cross workers and suicide attacks on crowds.
- Initially confined to areas on the border with Pakistan, the group established a second major front in northern provinces including Jawzjan and Faryab. The Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point said ISIS-K includes Pakistanis from other militant groups and Uzbek extremists in addition to Afghans.
- In April 2017, a US cargo aircraft dropped a 20,000-pound bomb, known as the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs), on a cave complex linked to ISIS-K in Achin district, eastern Afghanistan. It was the largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal.
- ISIS-K has fought both the Western-backed government and the Taliban, but its precise operational connection with the main Islamic State movement in Iraq and Syria remains uncertain.
- US intelligence officials believe the movement used the instability that led to the collapse of the Western-backed government this month to strengthen its position and step up recruitment of disenfranchised Taliban members.
- BBC / Reuters