How ISIS poses 'acute threat' to US in Afghanistan

NEW DELHI: The United States has warned that threat of a terrorist attack by the Islamic State terrorists in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-K (for Khorasan), "a sworn enemy of the Taliban", poses a serious danger to the administration’s evacuation efforts in Kabul.
“The threat is real, it is acute, it is persistent and it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We are working hard with our intelligence community to try to isolate and determine where an attack might come from.”
The United States on Saturday had also urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport, citing "potential security threats" near its gates.
The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on "counterterrorism operations" in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group.

Who is ISIS-K?
The Islamic State announced the formation of its Afghan affiliate - Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) in January 2015. ISKP was once concentrated in eastern Afghanistan, particularly in Nangarhar province, which borders the region of Pakistan, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). There, ISKP was mostly comprised of former Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan militants who fled Pakistani army operations in the FATA after mid-2014.
ISKP was “nearly eradicated” from its main base in eastern Afghanistan in late 2019 by US and Afghan military offensives and, separately, the Taliban. An ISKP contingent in northern Afghanistan was similarly defeated in 2018.
These territorial losses have forced the group to “decentralise” according to UN sanctions monitors, who assess the group has around 2,000 fighters primarily in the east but also in northern Afghanistan. A number of ISKP leaders have been killed in US strikes or captured by Afghan forces since 2016. Still, US officials have cautioned that ISKP remains a threat, and recent attacks attributed to the group indicate the same operational resilience it has demonstrated when pressured in the past.
Taliban vs ISKP
ISKP and Taliban forces, in the past, have fought over control of territory or because of political or other differences. Upon taking power, the Taliban reportedly executed an imprisoned former ISKP leader in August 2021.
Some have speculated that Taliban hardliners might defect to ISKP if Taliban leaders compromise on certain issues as they begin governing.
The extremist group has long declared a desire to attack America and US interests abroad and it has been active in Afghanistan for a number of years, carrying out waves of horrific attacks, mostly on the Shiite minority.
The leaders of the Islamic State in Afghanistan denounced the Taliban takeover of the country, criticising their version of Islamic rule as insufficiently hard-line.
The Taliban has said that they will not allow ISIS to become active in Afghanistan.
"We assure you that we will not let ISIS to become active in the country, in the areas under our control. As for the presence of terrorists from other countries, I completely deny this. There are no terrorists from Central Asia or China in the country. We assure you that we ... will prevent them from entering the country," Sputnik quoted Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid as saying.
Possible threats
US President Joe Biden has said the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and his administration was under no illusions about the threat from Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.
He affirmed that US military and counterterrorism officials were closely watching for threatened ISIS attacks, noting that thousands of prisoners had been released in Kabul and other locations.
While the Taliban is unlikely to have consciously let out the Islamic State fighters, the chaos in Afghanistan in recent weeks allowed all manner of prisoners to be freed from custody, including the Taliban’s enemies.
What is the US doing?
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US is maintaining constant vigilance to monitor and disrupt threats from any source.
The US has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban entered the capital Kabul on August 15.
The Pentagon has ordered commercial airlines to support the evacuation missions.
The US forces have expanded their perimeter around Kabul airport as part of their efforts to accelerate evacuations of American citizens, vulnerable Afghans and citizens of US allies, Biden said.
Biden has warned that the evacuation was going to be "hard and painful" and said a lot could still go wrong. US troops might stay beyond their Aug. 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.
The US President has promised to help any American in Afghanistan seeking to evacuate, saying, "Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home."
But he has admitted that the presence of thousands of US soldiers at the airport does not guarantee safe passage to that vast compound.
(With agency inputs)