Intelligence reports warn of a looming threat posed by ISIS’ Afghanistan-based affiliate commonly referred to as ISIS-K. It has emerged as a major threat capable of carrying out direct attacks on the US and is actively using its members’ social media to acquire contacts in the United States and other Western nations.
ISIS-K has gained a foothold in Afghanistan seeing as most resources are directed at defeating Taliban and ISIS central headquartered in Syria and Iraq. Moreover, information shows that the terror organization in Iraq and Syria has been sending some of its experienced fighters to join the ranks in Afghanistan to be used at a later date to reestablish the caliphate.
ISIS-K has been actively recruiting from schools and mosques and has been asking new recruits for their social media contacts and phone numbers of people they know in the US, to likely help their efforts to attack the US.
A Pentagon Inspector General report on the US military mission Afghanistan said that as of September 2018, it estimated that there were fewer than 2,000 ISIS-K fighters in Afghanistan.
