Why Is ISIS Carrying Out Suicide Bombings Against the Afghan People?

On September 2, local sources in Afghanistan announced that at least 18 people, including a prominent cleric, were killed, and dozens were injured in an explosion at a mosque in the western city of Herat.

Mohamed Daoud Mohammadi, an official at the Herat ambulance center, said in a press statement that "ambulances transported 18 bodies and 21 injured by the explosion to Herat hospitals," according to the Associated News.

For his part, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced in a press statement that a number of people were killed, including prominent cleric Mujibur Rahman Ansari, in an explosion that shook the mosque Guzarish in western Afghanistan.

The Taliban spokesman added that the death toll was likely to rise due to the crowding of the mosque during Friday prayers, without specifying the number of casualties.

 

Ansari Targeting

Mujibur Rahman Ansari was on his way to the pulpit when a man turned to him, handed him over, hugged him, and detonated his explosive belt. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan quoted sources as saying 47 people, including Mawlawi Mujibur Rahman Ansari, had been killed and 80 others wounded in an attack at a mosque in the western province of Herat.

Ansari, a mosque preacher, has been known for criticizing Afghanistan's Western-backed governments for two decades and is seen as close to the Taliban, who took control of the country a year ago with the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Months ago, Ansari declared his support for the Afghan government and Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada and had a famous speech in which he urged "the elimination of every insurgent militant against the Afghan government" and described those militants as "criminal cells."

Abdul Jabbar Bahir, head of the Afghan Center for Studies, said that the cleric Mawlawi Mujibur Rahman Ansari was targeted for supporting the position of the Taliban before taking office, as he opposed the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and at the same time described the Islamic State as a terrorist organization, and saw it as a Western project that serves Western interests in the country.

In his interview with Al-Jazeera, he explained that Ansari's targeting is not the first of its kind in Afghanistan but is one of a number of clerics and prominent figures in the country who were targeted after the Taliban took power a year ago.

 

Similar Assassinations

ISIS has been carrying out attacks since the Taliban took power, but it upscaled its intensity months ago.

On August 12, Afghan police confirmed that prominent modern scholar Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani and his brother were killed, and three others were injured in a suicide bombing targeting a religious school in the capital Kabul.

In a statement published on the website SITE, which specializes in monitoring Islamic websites, ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing carried out by a suicide bomber who succeeded in entering Haqqani's office and detonating his explosive vest.

Sources told Reuters the attacker had previously lost his leg and had hidden the explosives in a replacement plastic industrial leg.

 

ISIS Attacks

The Taliban say they have achieved security in Afghanistan, where they have been in power for nearly a year after the withdrawal of foreign troops.

However, there are regular attacks claimed by the Islamic State, mostly targeting religious and ethnic minorities and Taliban leaders.

Since the Taliban took control, the country has seen more than 100 bombings and armed attacks, mostly carried out by ISIS, killing hundreds.

The Taliban government has aborted 80 operations that ISIS has tried to carry out since taking power.

Haqqani is a prominent Taliban cleric who has survived previous attacks, including a massive explosion in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2020.

Taliban sources reported that Rahimullah Haqqani was an influential figure despite not holding any official position and had learned many of the group's members over the years.

In recent months, Rahimullah Haqqani has supported girls' right to go to school, saying in an interview on the BBC in May: "There is no justification in Sharia to say that female education is not allowed, there is no justification at all."

A week later, after Haqqani's targeting, medical and security sources reported that dozens were killed and injured in a bombing that targeted the mosque of the Afghan capital Kabul.

An Afghan security official said in press statements that 20 people had been killed and 40 wounded in a bombing at a mosque north of Kabul.

Witnesses told Reuters that the powerful explosion during evening prayers was heard in northern Kabul, destroying the windows of nearby buildings. Ambulances rushed to the scene.

The ISIS group has claimed 224 attacks in Afghanistan since August 2021, 30 of which were considered significant, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a nonprofit that monitors extremist groups. Most targeted Taliban gatherings.

 

Foes and Enemies

In 2015, ISIS–K (Islamic State – Khorasan Province) first launched in Afghanistan. Hafiz Saeed Khan, a citizen of Pakistan who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State's commander at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 2014, launched it. It attracted some recruits from the Taliban and other extremist organizations, but its original membership was primarily made up of Pakistani militants and was centered primarily in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.

Sanaullah Ghafari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, is the leader of ISIS–K and is thought to be in eastern Afghanistan. Following counterterrorism operations led by the United States in the group's heartland in eastern Afghanistan between 2018 and 2020, its attacks decreased.

Still, ISIS–K continues to carry out attacks on public places like weddings, mosques, and schools.

After the Taliban took over the government, ISIS–K grew its territory to include almost all of Afghanistan's provinces. It also increased the frequency of its attacks, executing assassinations, ambushes, and suicide bombings.

The Taliban have used a violent strategy for counterinsurgency: Local commanders in Jalalabad executed suspected Islamic State sympathizers in the fall and then hung their bodies at busy intersections. Numerous suspected ISIS–K members have vanished or been found dead.

Since the Taliban came to power, security has increased steadily for Afghans, but recent violence indicates the Islamic State is still a threat. According to the most recent report from the Defense Department's lead inspector general for U.S. counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan, which was released Tuesday, ISIS–K launched a new wave of attacks in the spring, claiming 80 attacks between April and the end of June, primarily targeting Hazara and Sufi minorities.

 

Why Escalation?

Ahmed Muwaffaq Zeidan, a journalist specializing in Afghan affairs, said that ISIS's implementation during the past month of attacks in three mosques came to draw media attention to its continued presence.

In press interviews, Zidan said that ISIS's message from these attacks is that "the Taliban government, which has defeated 40 countries led by the United States in a 20-year war, is unable to impose security and stability in Afghanistan."

The specialist stressed that the Islamic State aims to "harm the Taliban government and show it weak," adding that the continuous targeting of mosques should urge the government to take precautions.

Zidan said the Islamic State is not alone, pointing to some Western and regional security agencies that may have an interest in moving the group's hands to weaken the government.

The journalist does not deny that the Taliban government has been able to impose security in the country by a large percentage compared to the period of the U.S. occupation and the international coalition and went on to say that "no one can deal with the Islamic State like the Taliban, given its knowledge of the military tactics it practices."