A Taliban fighter stands guard at the entrance gate of the Afghanistan-Iran border crossing bridge in Zaranj, February 18, 2022.
Wakil Kohsar | Afp | Getty Images
Faced with a growing global terrorist threat, Biden administration officials are discussing expanding cooperation with the Taliban regime in Kabul to help track ISIS-K, the terrorist group’s branch that operates in Afghanistan, according to two sources familiar with the matter. the subject and a former US official. .
The administration and other Western governments are scrambling to keep up with the growing threat posed by ISIS-K. Before this year, U.S. and other Western officials believed that ISIS-K had the intent but not the ability to orchestrate attacks abroad. But that view changed with the horrific attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue on March 22, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Europe since 2004. ISIS-K also launched a major attack in Iran this year that killed dozens and other plans were disrupted in Europe.
But withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and declining Western influence in Africa have weakened Washington’s ability to gather intelligence on ISIS’ various offshoots.
“We have a very, very limited ability to see what they’re doing,” said a former military officer with experience in the area.
As a result, the administration is considering sharing more information with the Taliban about ISIS’ Khorasan branch, often referred to as ISIS-K.
The Taliban sees ISIS-K as a threat to its sovereignty and has launched a series of attacks against the group. But there is deep mistrust between the West and the Taliban after a 20-year war that pitted US-led forces against Afghan militants, who seized power as US troops withdrew in August 2021.
“There is an internal discussion about whether we will try to work more with the Taliban,” said a former senior official. Some members of Congress also support the approach, although they argue that the US should demand concessions from the Taliban in return, including securing more rights for Afghan women.
Some officials favor reopening the US Embassy to allow more cooperation between US intelligence and the Taliban regime, although Washington has yet to recognize the Taliban leadership as the country’s legitimate government.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said there were no current plans to reopen the embassy, but that the US was talking to the Taliban.
“While the United States has no intention of reopening an embassy in Afghanistan at this time, we are engaging realistically with a wide variety of Afghans, including the Taliban, through our diplomats based in Doha,” the spokesman said in an email.
The spokesman added that “the United States is intensely focused on terrorism and threats on the horizon, working both unilaterally and with our partners to disrupt and degrade ISIS-K and other terrorism-related threats around the world.” .
It is unclear how much can be gained from even a limited partnership with the Afghan Taliban, and some officials oppose the move, fearing that the Taliban will use the partnership as a way to push Washington to recognize its authority and tolerate its human rights violations.
Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in Herat on February 18, 2022.
Wakil Kohsar | AFP | Getty Images
A study group of former top officials, diplomats and regional experts at the US Institute of Peace issued a report in May calling for increased intelligence cooperation with the Taliban to counter ISIS-K.
“Sharing information on common concerns like ISIS-K is the practical thing to do, and our team has generally supported the US government’s ongoing efforts to maintain these kinds of channels with the Taliban,” said Asfandyar Mir, senior US counterterrorism expert. Institute for Peace. “We believe they can and should be upgraded.”
US intelligence agencies declined to comment.
After the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan nearly three years ago, the Biden administration said it would maintain an “over the horizon” capability to target terrorists in the country if needed. Since then, it has carried out only one such operation in Afghanistan, a drone strike that killed Osama bin Laden’s successor as al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was holed up in a safe house in Kabul.
Manhunts by drone or other means require accurate, timely information, which is less available without US teams on the ground and adequate surveillance in the area, former military officials and experts said.
US surveillance resources have shifted to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and the Navy’s effort to defend merchant shipping in the Red Sea from attacks by Houthi forces in Yemen, with targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan as less priority.
US intelligence gathering in Africa has also suffered setbacks.
In a series of coups in Niger and other Sahel statesanti-Western juntas have driven out US and French forces that had been tracking ISIS for years.
Extremist groups in Africa do not appear to have the ability to carry out terrorist attacks abroad, but if current trends continue, that could change, experts said.
The Biden administration has also imposed more restrictions on decision-making about any unilateral military strikes against terrorist targets abroad. The report by the US Institute of Peace recommended relaxing those rules without fully restoring the leeway given to commanders during the war in Afghanistan.
The former Army officer said the restrictions are hampering efforts to fight ISIS-K, as well as what the officer called the Biden administration’s reluctance to order military strikes in Afghanistan.
“There is an aversion to action,” the officer said.
But the National Security Council spokesman said the administration is determined to pursue terrorist threats anywhere in the world and that President Joe Biden has ordered operations during his tenure that have successfully targeted three key terrorist figures.
In addition to the strike that killed Zawahiri, Biden authorized an operation in Syria against then-ISIS leader Haji Abdullah and an operation in Somalia that resulted in the death of Bilal al-Sudani, a senior official in his global network ISIS. .
“As President Biden has made clear, we are committed to finding and eliminating terrorist threats to the United States and the American people, wherever they hide and however remote,” the spokesman said.
A senior administration official said that as a result of these “unprecedented” operations, “there has not been a single successful terrorist attack on the homeland under our watch.”
“This threat”
In Afghanistan, the Taliban say they have carried out a series of operations against ISIS-K in eastern provinces and killed many fighters, but that the group remains a threat.
“I think in some places, like in eastern Afghanistan, including Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, the people of the Islamic State and their supporters were dealt with mercilessly, but it helped us get rid of that threat,” a member of the security services told NBC Taliban. News.
Another senior Taliban security official said he recently visited the north of the country to gather intelligence on ISIS and found it had a small but significant presence. ISIS-K fighters move between Syria and Afghanistan via Iran, the official added.
Taliban officials declined to comment on sharing intelligence with the US or US allies about ISIS-K.
According to a UN sanctions monitoring committee, “Taliban efforts against ISIL-K [ISIS-K] they appear to be more focused on the internal threat posed to them than on the external operations of the group.”
The head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurila, told lawmakers in March “that pressure has been intermittent and insufficient” from the Taliban and that “the lack of sustained pressure has allowed ISIS-K to regenerate and harden their networks, creating multiple redundant nodes that direct, enable and inspire.”
Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and now senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit organisation, said he was skeptical that the Taliban could be a reliable partner to help the West prevent terrorist attacks by ISIS- K.
“I don’t think it’s a counter-terrorism relationship that’s gone too far, but I don’t think it’s been abandoned,” he said.
The Taliban say they have kept their commitment under an agreement signed under President Donald Trump that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for terrorist attacks abroad. But foreign governments and experts say a string of attacks, including in Pakistan and Turkey, as well as large-scale attacks in Iran and Russia, can be traced to ISIS-K.
In the final chaotic days of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, US commanders have been working with the Taliban to try to maintain order around Kabul airport and prevent possible attacks by ISIS-K or other extremists. But the partnership failed to prevent a deadly bombing by ISIS fighters at the airport’s entrance, which killed 13 American soldiers and about 170 Afghan civilians.