US leaves Afghanistan, ISIS-K cashing opportunity?

The US exit from Afghanistan ending its 20 year-long war has left people to suffer Taliban hardliner rule with the emergence of ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K) on its soil.

The US exit from Afghanistan ending its 20 year-long war has left people to suffer Taliban hardliner rule with the emergence of ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K) on its soil. The US is now gone from Afghanistan and a series of terror attacks have worsened the lives of the people of the country. Taking a look at the threats of the ISIS-K in the region and how the people react to the emerging terror.

The "mother of all bombs" (MOAB) was dropped over the cave of the Islamic State in the Achin and Spinghar districts in the Nangahar province of eastern Afghanistan in April 2017 with an aim to maim the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan from its power base, said a news piece in knewz. The bomb was dropped under the instruction of the then President of the US, Donald Trump. The mission being the first of its kind was named GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast. It was carried out to eradicate the ISIS affiliate called ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K) from its stronghold areas, according to the news piece.

"U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties with this strike and will continue offensive operations until ISIS-K is destroyed in Afghanistan," knewz quoted the Department of Defense as saying citing the statement issued at that time. The leftover villagers admit that a number of ISIS terrorists, also called Daeshs in the region, were killed in the attack. However, they also complain about the impact on their health.

"As soon as the bomb was dropped, all the Daeshs were killed, so people could live in this area. People started coming back. Before that, we couldn't live here. But now there are chemicals here," Hollie McKay in Afghanistan quoted a labour worker as saying in her news piece in knewz. He further confirmed the destruction of the houses and said that nobody was left in the region, and the ones who are left, live with problems.

The worst part, according to the knewz is that the villagers can no more make a living by growing crops. Director of Culture and Information for Nangarhar, Mohammad Hanif informed that the bomb has had an impact on the mental and physical state of the people.

"First, many people that heard the explosion have developed a couple of ear diseases and hearing disabilities. Secondly, it impacted people economically because people were cultivating those grounds they built greenhouses there and when the bomb hit that area everything was destroyed," knewz quoted Hanif as saying. However, the unheard lament of the villagers is that all of this suffering might have been for no good.

The terrorist outfit had stormed into a prison in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar and let the hardcore terrorists flee, in lead up to US' exit from the Nation. "My own concern is very specifically around ISIS-K and the degree to which ISIS-K [is] building off the notoriety it received after the attack on August 26," knewz quoted National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid as saying during a hearing on threats to the US.

Knewz reported that there is still no clarity on the number of active terrorists of ISIS in the country. The security experts suspect the number could be far higher than the suggested number of 2000 terrorists on the soil. However, the Taliban does not consider ISIS-K "even a problem".

"Daesh is not a big threat to us. The city is secure, and the whole province is sound and secure. We have especially deployed a lot of forces to manage the capital (Jalalabad)," knewz quoted Hanif as saying and further claimed that the Daesh "members" were arrested. The connection between the two outfits (Taliban and ISIS-K) became visible and noticeable when the Taliban released the ISIS terrorists from the prison earlier this year.

"Daesh in Afghanistan is a myth. It was an ideology created for Iraq and Syria and an intelligence network operating under the name of Daesh," knewz quoted the Director of intelligence for the eastern zone of Afghanistan, Basheer. "They pretended like they were Muslims, but they are not Muslims. ISIS is a group that has been created by the name of Islam, but they have only fought against Muslims in every country they are active because that is their ideology. They're there to kill other Muslims and destroy Islam. The ISIS soldiers are educated in Europe and America."

However, knewz reported that Basheer claims to have arrested around 300 ISIS-K terrorists, who they no more call Daesh but "rebel".Notably, the Taliban had vowed to the world not to let the terrorist groups use Afghanistan soil for propagating terrorism. They still seem hesitant to admit the fact that the threat of ISIS-K is real and the terrorist outfit is expanding its presence everywhere in the country.

Following the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in August this year, the terrorist attacks have seen a steep rise in the country, especially the attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) that killed 13 US soldiers and more than 160 Afghans. The outfit is becoming too hard to be ignored for the Taliban and the US or the allies. A spate of killings has followed on the streets of Afghanistan since the attack on the Kabul airport in August. The killings took place everywhere in the country, Jalalabad to Kabul, Kandahar to Kunduz, including the Taliban terrorists. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)