Commentary
As tensions escalate across the Middle East and Iran-backed militias wage war on the United States and its allies, ISIS has been rebuilding and has apparently found the moment to strike.
According to security analysts, ISIS claiming responsibility for the massacre at Crocus City Hall outside of Moscow is the culmination of a steady buildup of the transnational terrorist organization over the past few years. The international coalition never defeated ISIS. It was dealt some heavy blows, but it has remained active in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan with splinter groups such as Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, carrying out attacks in other countries, including attacks on the Taliban, whom they feel do not adhere to a strict enough interpretation of Islam. The day before the Moscow concert attack, ISIS-K perpetrated a suicide bombing in a bank in Kandahar.
The group has also sought to drive a wedge between the Taliban and its supporters by launching attacks on the Russian and Pakistani embassies in Kabul, as well as a hotel that housed Chinese diplomats and business people. It also blames Russia for supporting militias in Syria and condemns the Taliban for building closer ties with Moscow.
ISIS-K objects to China on two grounds. First, it does not want the Taliban legitimized as the official government of Afghanistan, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is now one of the Taliban’s most important diplomatic allies. Additionally, ISIS-K blames the CCP for its repression of Uyghurs and for co-opting Muslim nations like Afghanistan to remain silent on the issue.
ISIS-K has remained active, using Afghanistan as a base from which to launch attacks in Iran, Pakistan, and other nations. In January, dozens were killed and hundreds were wounded when ISIS-K carried out bombings at the funeral service of the former leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Qassim Suleimani. The scope of ISIS activity is frighteningly broad. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, ISIS-K focused on “internationalizing” its agenda. Consequently, Russia, Germany, Turkey, and Tajikistan have all uncovered ISIS-K plots within their own borders. In late January, ISIS gunmen attacked a Catholic Church in Istanbul. An ISIS-K publication states that Southern France should constitute one border of the ISIS caliphate, which should run all the way to Australia and Indonesia.
In February, the top military leader of Kurdish forces allied with the United States in Syria cautioned that the intensifying fighting in the Middle East, coupled with assaults by Iranian-supported factions from Iraq and Syria, was paving the way for the resurgence of the Islamic State. Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), briefed Washington on the most urgent threats facing his soldiers. The Kurdish forces are crucial to maintaining U.S. interests in the region and preventing ISIS from resurfacing. The United States has approximately 900 troops in northeastern Syria as part of an international coalition working together with the SDF to defeat ISIS.
General Commander Abdi warned that increased attacks by Iran-backed groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis were raising security concerns in the region. Amid rising violence across the Middle East, Gen. Abdi has witnessed an increase in ISIS activity.
In addition to increased attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq by Iran-backed groups, three U.S. service members were killed in Jordan in January. A Kurdish base in Syria, where American soldiers are stationed, was hit in February, resulting in the deaths of several Kurdish soldiers. Gen. Abdi believes the goal of these attacks is to drive the U.S. and coalition forces out.
The mission of the SDF is to monitor threats from ISIS in the region, maintain security at prisons holding ISIS fighters, and keep tabs on radicalization efforts at Al Hol, a camp for families that formerly lived under ISIS. This is a formidable task, given that the camp has 52,000 inhabitants. In January, the SDF captured 31 ISIS members hiding among the refugees in the camp. The increase in violence of late has impeded the SDF’s ability to patrol the countryside, surveil ISIS, and keep an eye out for potential ISIS activity.
One of ISIS’s primary goals, according to Gen. Abdi, is to break its members out of the prisons and detention centers so they can rejoin the fight and help ISIS establish control over the country. One of the biggest sticking points in coalition efforts against ISIS is the longstanding feud between Turkey and the Kurds. Turkey, a NATO member, has been launching its own missions in the region, which have resulted in the deaths of Kurdish civilians and inhibited the SDF from carrying out their counterinsurgency mission.
Turkey sees groups like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as terrorist organizations. However, Washington keeps reminding Ankara that the PKK is also an enemy of the SDF and that the PKK has targeted SDF and Americans alike. Last year, U.S. forces had to shoot down a Turkish drone that posed a threat to American lives.
Turkey, wittingly or unwittingly, is hindering U.S.-Kurd operations against ISIS in Syria. At the same time, the expansive list of people ISIS-K has marked for termination should help diverse countries find a common cause to cooperate on, namely the elimination of ISIS. Among those on the ISIS-K hit list are former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as leaders of Hamas and the Taliban.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
