ISIS’s barbaric Ramadan attacks

If the hallmark of Taliban is to execute simultaneous spectacular attacks to advance its strategic momentum, the month of Ramadan shows that the Islamic State fighters are taking this tactic to a new level. Yet the extreme amounts of bloodshed during the holy month will likely ultimately weaken ISIS, as tribes in eastern provinces of the country get united against them where the threats of the so-called IS militants are high, even more appalled by the group’s barbarism.

Heavy fighting between Islamic State militants and Afghan National Security Forces has claimed dozens of lives in eastern Nangarhar province. In recent days insurgents claiming allegiance to Islamic State had largely appeared to be bottled up in a mountainous area along the border with Pakistan under threat of U.S. and Afghan air strikes.

 

 

Local officials claimed more than 100 Islamic State fighters had been killed in fighting in Nangarhar over the past three days. As many as 25 homes had also been burned down in Kowt district by the militants, and five civilians were reportedly kidnapped.

 

 

Militants linked to Islamic State yet haven’t made as much progress in Afghanistan as in Syria and Iraq, where the group seized major cities and wide swaths of territory and attracted thousands of recruits.

 

 

In Afghanistan, the group is thought to be consisted of mostly disaffected members of other insurgent groupings, including the Taliban, who have often battled Islamic State for control of areas in Nangarhar. In January, U.S. President Barack Obama gave U.S. forces in Afghanistan more freedom to attack Islamic State targets, leading to a spike in air strikes and other operations, especially in Nangarhar province.

 

 

Among the groups that have taken up ISIS’ black flag in Afghanistan are factions of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP; the Pakistani militant group Lashkar e Taiba; and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Currently, the leaders of ISIS in Afghanistan are predominantly former Pakistani Taliban members. 

 

 

Despite of such hit and run attacks, ISIS is not a threat now comparing their presence in Middle East countries, but if it is left unchecked by the government and the international community, it can turn into a major threat that might not be very easy to be controlled. Besides military mean against them, the support of religious scholars can be very helpful, especially as the militants’ barbaric acts in the holy month of Ramadan have no place in Islam.

 

 

Once the country’s Ulema began their awareness campaign against such barbarism, it would be very effective to control their presence in remote areas and villages, where the people far from the modern knowledge, truly believing on what the Mullahs saying and listen only to their words, which mostly the Taliban and nowadays the so-called ISIS affiliates using such opportunities for their own interest and against the people and government of Afghanistan.  

Credit: The Kabul Times