Afghanistan Terrorism Report: June 2022

Afghanistan Terrorism Report June 2022 

By Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler and Joshua Fisher-Birch

Following is the June 2022 installment of “Afghanistan Terrorism Report.” The authors provide a monthly analysis concerning the developing terrorist threat in Afghanistan as well as a comprehensive overview of that month’s al-Qaeda and ISIS-K propaganda.

ISIS-related propaganda continues to portray an image of high operational tempo in Afghanistan. In June, highlighted incidents concentrated on the east of the country, the capital Kabul, as well as Peshawar and Bajaur in Pakistan, illustrating that ISIS-K’s operational area continues to extend into Pakistan. Furthermore, Kunduz and Mazar-e Sharif in the north remained consistent targets for ISIS terror attacks. ISIS propaganda outlets highlighted two incidents in June. Both were attacks on government officials and individuals working in government facilities: airport staff in Mazar-e Sharif and prison guards in Kabul. While in previous months, ISIS propaganda outlets mainly claimed attacks on what they termed “Taliban militia,” and in May, attacks on electricity infrastructure were conducted. Therefore, it seems possible that ISIS tactics will attempt to disrupt government functions in the country and continue targeting Taliban fighters and security officials.

Map of incidents highlighted by ISIS-K social media propaganda in June 2022

Interestingly, one of the most significant incidents in Afghanistan was hardly featured in ISIS-linked propaganda. On June 22, one of the most severe earthquakes in nearly two decades affected Paktika and Khost provinces in the east of Afghanistan, killing around 1,000 individuals and injuring nearly 3,000 individuals. This tragedy could have been an opportunity for ISIS to demonstrate that apart from violence, it is also interested in garnering public support by providing aid to locals in the affected area. The fact that pro-ISIS propaganda did not highlight this demonstrates that the group continues to identify itself purely as a destructive terror movement and, despite its criticism of the Taliban regime as illegitimate, does not attempt to compete with it within the realm of civic governance. The only significant mention of the incident in pro-ISIS propaganda outlets located by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) was a short criticism that India allegedly provided more support to the victims than other Muslim countries. This emphasis on terrorist operations is also highlighted again by the June 17 issue of the Voice of Khorasan web magazine, which devoted several articles to summaries of attacks and explained the importance of fighting as a core element of ISIS ideology.

In June, ISIS propagandists covered the brutal attack on a Sikh Temple in Kabul, killing two and injuring several others. This attack was allegedly in response to an Indian politician’s offensive comments about the Prophet Muhammad and occurred while India was in the process of reopening its embassy in Kabul. The violence can be seen not only as a message to the Indian government—which as a consequence of the attack, issued over 100 emergency visas to Hindus and Sikhs wishing to leave the country—but also to other governments planning to reopen their embassies that the security situation in Kabul remains challenging. Nonetheless, India reopened its embassy with a “technical team” on June 23, 2022, mainly to coordinate humanitarian assistance.

Similarly, pro-ISIS propaganda criticized the visit of Iranian officials to the province of Khost as an example that the Taliban regime is eager to cooperate with countries that ISIS perceives as hostile to its version of true Islam. Khost province is the home of the Haqqani clan and, until the Taliban takeover in August 2021, was a center of insurgent and al-Qaeda activity, including the famous attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman by an al-Qaeda double agent in 2009. This official visit also indicates that Iran—which previously concentrated its activities on the west of Afghanistan, particularly in Herat—is examining an increased geographic scope of its activities. During the visit, the Iranian Deputy Ambassador to Kabul Hassan Mortazavi discussed the delivery of humanitarian aid and trade opportunities.

As part of its broad delegitimization campaign against the Taliban regime, pro-ISIS propaganda outlets continue to highlight Taliban infighting and the killing of suspected ISIS members. In June, tensions between Pashtun and Hazara factions of the Taliban flared up. To gain increased control over some of the country’s coal mines, the Taliban challenged Mehdi Mujahid, a Hazara leader and senior Taliban figure in Sar-e Pol Province, in the north of the country. Consequently, this military operation seems to have displaced a significant number of Hazaras in the country, creating additional humanitarian challenges for this ethnic group.

The brutality of the Taliban regime’s countermeasures against ISIS in the country was highlighted at the beginning of July when reports emerged that the Taliban may have summarily executed over 100 suspected ISIS members in the east of the country. The issue of extrajudicial killings was also taken up by the regular report of the Secretary General of the United Nations to the U.N. Security Council concerning the situation in Afghanistan and the activities of the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).

As in previous months, pro-ISIS propaganda highlighted the close connection between the Taliban and al-Qaeda and therefore emphasized that al-Qaeda has delegitimized itself. The pro-ISIS web magazine released on June 17 characterized both the Taliban and al-Qaeda as American creations. ISIS’s continued obsession with the U.S. government as well as actual and potential U.S. actions regarding Afghanistan was demonstrated with pro-ISIS outlets not only featuring a recent report of the RAND Corporation but also the latest update report of the Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (SIGAR) from April 2022.

As in previous months, ISIS continues to highlight that despite the Taliban ban on drug production in Afghanistan in April, the production of opium in the country continues, regardless of some eradication efforts being showcased by the Taliban. Pro-ISIS propaganda outlets explained that the ban was not only introduced following the poppy harvest in Afghanistan but also resulted in the Taliban's monopolization of drug production in the country. Outside observers also are doubtful about the ban’s impact on the country’s overall level of drug production.

Additionally, a video released by ISIS West Africa Province on June 14 explained that the Taliban in Afghanistan are apostates, elevating the standing of ISIS’s Afghanistan affiliate within the terror group’s global network.

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