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Unknown militant group, Islamic State Khorasan, claims responsibility for Kabul airport blasts

A relatively unknown militant group, the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), has said it was behind the twin blasts at the Kabul airport that killed over 100 and injured more than 150 people at the Kabul airport in conflict-ridden Afghanistan on Thursday.

In a statement of claim on Friday, the group claimed responsibility for the bombings and vowed to continue carrying out similar attacks till the United States and its allies leave the Asian country.

Investigations into the groups’ activities has revealed that it is one of the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan, though it has been operating in the shadows of the more known Taliban terrorist group.

According to a BBC report, the IS-K is a regional affiliate of the group calling itself Islamic State and is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The group has been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in recent years, targeting girls’ schools, hospitals, and even a maternity ward of pregnant women, infants, and nurses were shot dead.

They are said to be part of the global IS Network that seeks to carry out attacks on western, international and humanitarian targets wherever they can reach them, with links to the Taliban through a third party, the Haqqani Network.

But they have major differences with the Taliban, accusing them of abandoning Jihad and the battlefield in favour of a negotiated peace settlement, and now represent a major security challenge for the incoming Taliban government.

Afghan militant group dares Taliban, vows to resist new govt

An Afghanistan militant group, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), has vowed to resist the new Taliban government if they refuse to embrace peace, saying it is ready to go to battle as they have enough men to take on the regime.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC on Monday, Head of Foreign Relations for NRF, Ali Nazary, said they were set for battle against the Taliban, stressing that no one would be allowed to conquer their land.

According to Nazary, they prefer peace through negotiation and if the Taliban fails to embrace peace, they would resort to using force.

“We prefer peace, we prioritise peace and negotiations. If this fails, if we see that the other side is not sincere, if we see that the other side is trying to force itself on the rest of the country, then we’re not going to accept any sort of aggression.

And we’ve proven ourselves, our track record in the past 40 years has shown that no one is able to conquer our region, especially the Panjshir Valley”, Nazary said.

The Taliban took over Kabul, the Afghanistan capital on August 15 after the United States withdrew its troops from the country and though they have been trying to form a new government, its fighters have been on the rampage, targeting citizens they believed had sympathy for US and the fallen regime, as well as making drastic decrees that many international political analysts say would push the country into a state of anarchy.