On December 2, 2022, there was an attack targeting the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul in which a guard police officer was injured. The terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, DAESH) claimed responsibility for the attack.[1] At this point, it should be reminded that the terrorist organization DAESH also attacked the Russian Embassy in Kabul on September 6, 2022.[2] Because attacks open up the question of what DEASH is trying to do by targeting diplomatic missions.
It is known that DAESH operates in Afghanistan under the name of the so-called Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP). It can be said that the organization mainly targets the Taliban administration and the Afghan Shiites, especially the Hazaras. This indicates that ISKP has two main objectives. The first is the overthrow of the Taliban. The second is that Afghanistan is dragged into a Shiite-Sunni-based sectarian war, and this sectarian war gradually turns into a proxy war and then a regional war. In other words, the ISKP serves a process that will destabilize not only Afghanistan but also the Central Asia-South Asia line, including Russia and China. Because ISKP’s attacks in Afghanistan aim to mobilize ethnic and sectarian dynamics.
Aware of DAESH’s regional chaos plan, the Taliban carries out counter-terrorism operations within the framework of its commitments in the Doha Agreement signed on February 29, 2020, and clashes are taking place between the Taliban and DAESH in various regions. In order to prevent radicalization in Afghanistan, the regional states are developing de facto relations with the Taliban instead of isolating the country and trying to draw Afghanistan to ground of international cooperation.
In such an environment, it can be said that the terrorist organization DEASH targets actors who want to include Afghanistan in various projects and make concrete efforts to establish regional cooperation, stability, development, security and peace. ISKP’s purpose here is to make the aforementioned states feel that Afghanistan is an unsafe country. The attacks send the message that terrorist organizations continue to operate in this country.
At the same time, message includes an effort to show that Taliban has not or cannot fulfill their commitments in the Doha Agreement. Because in this agreement, Taliban declared that they would not allow the targeting of third states by using Afghan territory.[3] However, according to international law, embassies are considered the territory of the respective states. In this sense, the ISKP theoretically targets foreign states through the territory of Afghanistan.
Moreover, it is remembered that DAESH launched missile attacks on Tajikistan for the same purpose and these attacks were confirmed by the Dushanbe administration.[4] Similarly, in October 2022, a terrorist attack took place in the Iranian city of Shiraz, in which 15 people lost their lives, and it was announced that this attack was carried out by the elements of DAESH in Afghanistan, namely ISKP.[5]
Finally, DAESH targeted Pakistan’s Embassy in Kabul. Considering that the Islamabad administration has historically had positive relations with the Taliban, it can be stated that ISKP is trying to show that it tends to destabilize all actors that have good relations with the Taliban through Pakistan. Indeed, the fact that such an attack took place right after the visit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan to Kabul[6] indicates a situation that cannot be considered as a coincidence. To summarize briefly, the ISKP sends a message to actors that have good relations with the Taliban that they are not safe, and thus tries to ensure that these states distance themselves from the Taliban.
However, the failure of the Taliban to overcome the recognition problem causes disruption in investments and aid, and accordingly, poverty in country increases, and such an environment opens up space for the activities of radical organizations such as DAESH. Because of this risk, the targeting of the regional states, which try to develop a collective attitude and advocate the solution of the Afghan Problem with a perspective that focuses on dialogue, by the DEASH terrorist organization aims to create the perception that the Taliban cannot ensure the security of Afghanistan.
As a result, Afghanistan is witnessing the activities of the terrorist organization DEASH and these attacks mainly target the Taliban with aim of overthrowing the Taliban administration and the Hazaras in order to mobilize sectarian fault lines. Recently, however, DAESH has been committing terrorist acts in diplomatic missions of foreign states and even directly on their territory, as seen in the cases of Tajikistan and Iran. It can be argued that DAESH’s aim is to send a message to the actors who have established relations with the Taliban that there is a price for this orientation. Most importantly, DEASH is trying to increase the pressure of the international community on the Taliban through actions that can be interpreted as violating the Doha Agreement. Perhaps this is the role assigned to the terrorist organization ISKP by global actors who want to destabilize Afghanistan in particular and the region in general.
[1] “گروه داعش مسئولیت حمله بر سفارت پاکستان در کابل را بدوش گرفت”, AFINTL, https://da.azadiradio.com/a/32160848.html, (Date of Accession: 05.12.2022).
[2] “Afganistan’daki Rusya Büyükelçiliğine Yönelik Saldırıyı DEAŞ Üstlendi”, CNN Türk, https://www.cnnturk.com/dunya/afganistandaki-rusya-buyukelciligine-yonelik-saldiriyi-deas-ustlendi, (Date of Accession: 05.12.2022).
[3] “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Which is not Recognized by the United States as a State and is Known as the Taliban and the United States of America”, State, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf, (Date of Accession: 05.12.2022).
[4] Nurbek Bekmurzaev, “Islamic State in Khorasan Province’s Rocket Attack in Tajikistan”, The Jamestown Foundation, https://jamestown.org/program/islamic-state-in-khorasan-provinces-rocket-attack-in-tajikistan/, (Date of Accession: 05.12.2022).
[5] “İran: Terör Örgütü DEAŞ’ın Üstlendiği Şiraz’daki Saldırıyla İlgili 26 Kişi Tutuklandı”, TRT Haber, https://www.trthaber.com/haber/dunya/iran-teror-orgutu-deasin-ustlendigi-sirazdaki-saldiriyla-ilgili-26-kisi-tutuklandi-721942.html, (Date of Accession: 05.12.2022).
[6] “سرپرست وزارت امور خارجه، روابط افغانستان و پاکستان را برای مردم منطقه مفید خواند”, Bakhtarnews, https://l24.im/ST0, (Date of Accession: 30.11.2022).
