WASHINGTON: In light of the Foreign Office’s statement that it was checking Islamic State’s claim that it had attacked the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul, an official US report to Congress casts doubt on the Afghan Taliban’s ability to combat IS.
“Independently and in cooperation with the Afghan authorities, we are investigating the authenticity of these reports,” a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the attack was a reminder of the danger posed by extremist activities in the region.
“We must act resolutely and with all of our united strength to overcome this threat. According to a FO source, Pakistan’s resolve to combat terrorism remains unwavering.
Islamic State-Khorasan Province, which claimed responsibility for the attack, has ties to Islamic State in the Middle East.
IS claimed that two of its fighters armed with “medium and sniper guns” carried out the attack, which targeted the ambassador and his guards in the embassy’s courtyard, according to Reuters.
US report
In the meantime, an official US report to Congress casts doubt on the Taliban’s capacity to combat ISIS.
According to a report delivered this week to Congress by the Congressional Research Service, “experts dispute on the severity of the ISKP danger and the Taliban’s self-proclaimed ability to combat the group without external support” (CRS).
The CRS assessment adds, “The local Islamic State branch ISKP, a longtime Taliban enemy, poses perhaps a greater violent threat to the Taliban.
It notes that the ISKP has opposed the Taliban from its inception in 2015, perceiving the Taliban’s Afghanistan-centered nationalist political goal as antithetical to IS’s globalist idea of a caliphate.
Since the Taliban seizure of Kabul in August 2021, according to the Congressional Research Service, “ISKP’s ranks have grown to as many as 4,000 militants despite a determined Taliban onslaught, and ISKP has claimed responsibility for a series of major strikes in 2022” inside Afghanistan.
CRS is a congressional think tank situated in Washington that provides nonpartisan shared staff to legislative committees and House and Senate members. It operates only at the request and direction of Congress.
The Pakistan Embassy in Kabul was attacked on Friday, with Afghanistan’s Charge d’Affaires Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani being the target. Mr. Nizamani was unharmed, however, his guard was gravely injured.
The CRS research also explores how the regional dynamics of neighboring states have a direct impact on developments in Afghanistan and how “Afghanistan’s events have ramifications for its neighbors.”
According to the research, Pakistan is Afghanistan’s “most crucial” neighbor, since it “has played an active and, according to many accounts, destabilizing role in Afghan politics for decades, including openly supporting the Taliban during its 1990s administration and much of its subsequent conflict.
The article notes that many experts viewed “the Taliban takeover, at least initially, as a victory for Pakistan’s regional policy,” citing Pakistani authorities’ declarations of support for the takeover.
However, the paper also highlights recent “indications that the Taliban’s return to power may provide Pakistan with hurdles”
It warns that the Taliban’s triumph “may provide a morale and possibly material boost to Pakistan-based terrorist organizations, notably the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a foreign terrorist organization designated by the United States.”
According to the research, “TTP strikes against Pakistani security forces accelerated after August 2021, causing the Pakistani government to seek Afghan Taliban mediation of successive ceasefires, which appear to have failed by late 2022.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, Afghanistan-Pakistan relations are further complicated by the presence of over one million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, as well as a long-running and ethnically tinged dispute over their shared long border, where Taliban and Pakistani government forces clashed intermittently in 2022.
