Kabul explosion signals opening of jihadi civil war in AfghanistanA former member of the U.S. State Department said the real purpose of Thursday's suicide attack in Kabul, which killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans, was "an opening salvo of a civil war ISIS-K is seeking to fight against the Taliban."
The ISIS-K suicide bombing marked the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.
In an interview with Fox News, Christopher Harnisch, former deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department, broke down the terrorist group’s motivation for the attack amid the U.S. completing its withdrawal from the country.
"We in the West tend to think of the target being Americans," Harnisch told Fox News. "The real purpose was to attract potential recruits into its ranks, and also to really launch a civil war against the Taliban and other groups fighting along the periphery."
The group, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISIS-K, is an Afghan affiliate of the group's core leadership in Syria and Iraq. After the Islamic State lost its territory following a five-year military campaign by local and international forces, the caliphate increasingly turned to Afghanistan for its fighters.
ISIS-K was founded in 2015 by several hundred disillusioned Pakistani Taliban fighters. According to Harnisch, the goal of all ISIS factions is "to establish a global caliphate governed by the most extreme and oppressive interpretation of Sharia."
"With the withdrawal from Afghanistan, ISIS-K sees an opportunity to fill a security vacuum and ultimately try to come to power," he continued.
In order to gain control of the region, ISIS-K will have to fight the Taliban, which just toppled the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan after a 10-day blitz and currently sits at the helm of the country.
In addition to sparking a civil war with rival militant Islamist jihadi groups, another reason for the attack was to aid the terrorists group's global recruitment effort...................
https://www.foxnews.com/world/kabul-explosion-signals-opening-of-jihadi-civil-war-in-afghanistan
