Afghanistan: UN report warns expanding threat from ISIS, Al-Qaeda

The report by the UN Security Council, published Thursday, says that despite territorial, leadership, manpower and financial losses during 2020 in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, Daesh’s Khorasan branch, or ISIL-K, has moved into other provinces, including Nuristan, Badghis, Sar-e-Pul, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Kabul, where fighters have formed sleeper cells, reports Tolo News.

The report says that the group has strengthened its positions in and around Kabul, where it conducts most of its attacks, targeting minorities, activists, government employees and personnel of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

The report says that most recently, Daesh claimed responsibility for the brutal attack of 8 June, when 10 humanitarian deminers working with HALO Trust in Baghlan Province were killed and 16 were injured.

“In its efforts to resurge, ISIL-K has prioritized the recruitment and training of new supporters; its leaders also hope to attract intransigent Taliban and other militants who reject the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States and the Taliban and to recruit fighters from the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq and other conflict zones,” the report was quoted as saying by Tolo News.

“One member state stressed that ISIL-K was largely underground and clandestine,” the report says. “Its leader, Shahab al-Muhajir, alias Sanaullah, cooperates with Sheikh Tamim, head of the al-Sadiq office.”