Attack - Who Are IS-K?

Sometimes in January the US intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people IS-K has a history of attacks, including against mosques, inside and outside Afghanistan.

The group was also responsible for a massive attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic Western evacuation from the country.

According to report, IS-K posted at the time on its official Telegram account that it was indeed behind a bombing in Iran during a memorial procession for Qassem Soleimani, the revered Iranian commander killed in a US drone strike in 2020. Iran described it as the worst attack it had experienced in decades.

In September 2022, IS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.

Other previous attacks in Kabul have included a 2019 wedding reception, killing more than 60 and injuring 180 and a maternity ward the following year, killing 24 civilians, according to the US office of the director of national intelligence.

Before the US withdrew from Afghanistan, IS-K targeted American military personnel. After the US drawdown in 2021, it has become more difficult for Washington to gather intelligence about the group.

IS-K is named after an old term for the Khorasan region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. 

It emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality. 

In its earliest days, the group had wide-ranging priorities, including toppling the Pakistani government, punishing the Iranian government for supporting the Shia Muslim world, and to “purify” Afghanistan, including by pushing out the Taliban as the main jihadi movement, according to the Wilson Center, a US think tank. 

The group’s priorities have expanded in recent years to include the US government. 

One of the most active regional affiliates of the IS militant group, IS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018. The Taliban and US forces inflicted heavy losses. 

The US government has said its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as IS-K has been reduced since the withdrawal of US troops from the country in 2021.