According to a recently released report submitted to the UN Security Council, the Islamic State’s central leadership replaced the group’s head in Afghanistan earlier this year. The leadership change reportedly occurred after an Islamic State “core delegation” visited the country.
Amrullah Saleh was responsible for killing and capturing thousands of Taliban commanders and fighters during his tenure as NDS chief and during his brief stint as interior minister.
Eleven people were killed and dozens more were wounded in the bombings. The Taliban has launched seven suicide attacks in Afghanistan in the past 25 days.
The Islamic State’s Wilayah Khorasan is the latest province of the so-called caliphate to release a video as part of the “And the Best Outcome is for the Righteous” series. Fighters in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kashmir, and Pakistan are shown renewing their oaths of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. One speaker blasts the Taliban, encouraging its fighters to defect.
An Islamic State suicide bomber struck outside the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul earlier today. It is the second time the so-called Khorasan province has attacked the academy. According to UNAMA, the jihadists launch more “suicide and complex attacks” in the Afghan capital than in any other area of the country.
An 18-year-old man from North Texas has pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to actively recruit for the Pakistani-backed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to a release from the Department of Justice last week.
On May 14, the UN Security Council added the Islamic State’s so-called Khorasan province to its list of sanctioned terrorist entities. The group has recently rebranded operations in Kashmir and Pakistan as the work of supposedly new “provinces.”
A small team of Islamic State jihadists assaulted the Ministry of Communications in Kabul on Apr. 20. It was the latest in a string of attacks on government ministries and other official sites in the Afghan capital.
