Even by Afghanistan’s standards of often-shifting alliances, a recent meeting between ethnic Hazara elders and local commanders of the Taliban insurgents who have persecuted them for years was extraordinary.
The Hazaras — a largely Shiite minority killed in the thousands during the Sunni Muslim Taliban’s extremist rule of the 1990s — came to their old enemies seeking protection against what they deemed an even greater threat: masked men in the area calling themselves operatives for the Islamic State group.
In a sign of changing times, the Taliban commanders agreed to help, said Abdul Khaliq Yaqubi, one of the elders at the meeting held in the eastern province of Ghazni.
Photo: AFP
The unusual pact is a window into deepening anxiety in Afghanistan over reports of Islamic State extremists gaining a foothold in a nation already weary of more than a decade of war with the Taliban.
Back-to-back kidnappings within a month of two groups of Hazara travelers — by men widely rumored, though far from proven, to claim fealty to the Islamic State — have many spooked.
The current threat the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant poses in Afghanistan is less about real military might than the opportunity for disparate insurgent groups, including defectors from an increasingly fractured Taliban, to band together under this global “brand” that controls portions of Iraq and Syria, observers said.
The fear is especially sharp among religious minorities like the Hazaras, who worry that the influence of the anti-Shiite extremists could introduce a new dimension of sectarian strife to the war.
“Whether DAESH exists or not, the psychological impact of it is very dangerous in Ghazni, which is home to all ethnicities,” Ghazni Deputy Governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told reporters, using an Arabic-language acronym for the Islamic State group. “This could easily stir up tensions.”
Unlike in Iraq or Syria, the Islamic State group controls no Afghan territory and operational links between local fighters and the group’s leadership are murky.
However, reports of self-proclaimed Islamic State-allied fighters have been growing since last summer. In Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, armed clashes between alleged fighters for the group and Taliban have been reported.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on Afghanistan said a handful of Taliban commanders had declared allegiance to the Islamic State and were increasingly seeking funding or cooperation from the group.
However, it added that there was “no indication of widespread or systematic support” for Afghan fighters from Islamic State leaders in the Middle East.
Some say the Islamic State’s intolerance toward Shiites, who the Sunni extremists view as apostates, leaves them with less traction in Afghanistan, where sectarian violence has been rare since the Taliban lost power.
The Afghan government said the group does pose a problem.
“The simple thing is that DAESH is here and they do exist,” said Ajmal Abidy, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) in Kabul cited reliable reports that groups of self-described Islamic State fighters were in six provinces, plus rumors of dozens of members in several others.
Any support the Islamic State has appears to echo divisions in the larger Taliban insurgency, ICG analyst Graeme Smith said.
“It is a moving target ... Just because it is not militarily significant today does not mean that can’t change,” he added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS