- ISIS-K likely recruits UK extremists amidst Syrian access difficulties
- Brothers detained for planning to join ISIS-K in Afghanistan
- Concerns rise over ISIS-K’s broader strategic intentions and attacks
Although the Islamic State continues to be the preferred organization of Western extremists, access to Syria is becoming progressively more difficult. As a result, several British recruits have attempted to travel to Afghanistan in order to join ISIS-K.
It is also possible that the Islamic State organization responsible for the attack on the Crocus music venue near Moscow has recruited members in the United Kingdom.
By means of its Amaq news agency, the organization asserted accountability for the concert hall shooting atrocity of last Friday, which resulted in the loss of a minimum of 139 lives.
According to intelligence sources from the United States, the branch most likely responsible is ISIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan Province.
In January 2015, in eastern Afghanistan, factions that had previously been affiliated with the Taliban renounced their allegiance to the Syria-based Islamic State, thereby giving rise to the offshoot group.
Although the Islamic State continues to be the preferred organization of Western extremists, access to Syria is becoming progressively more difficult; consequently, several recruits from the United Kingdom have endeavoured to reach Afghanistan.
Two brothers were incarcerated in November of last year for completing online application forms to join ISIS-K while acting out suicide bombings in homemade recordings.
Haleem Heyder Khan, age 21, and his brother, Hamzah Heyder Khan, age 18, both from Ward End, Birmingham, researched how to reach Turkey and Iraq prior to determining that the journey would be too difficult and refocusing their efforts on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
An Islamic State recruiter contacted the brothers via Instagram and provided them with Arabic-language forms to complete and a code to access encrypted WhatsApp messages.
The individuals procured and assembled apparel and equipment, performed exhaustive research on viable means of reaching Afghanistan, and acquired travel authorizations for Pakistan.
The director of Counter Terrorism Policing in the West Midlands, Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, issued a warning at the time that the two brothers were determined to be martyrs and could have been “redeployed back to the United Kingdom.”
The mother is accused of attempting to radicalize her children.
In an echo of the journeys of families to Syria, a mother of two from the Midlands has also been detained and charged with attempting to radicalize her children and recruit them into the group.
She allegedly initiated online correspondence with the organization in order to secure official authorization for her journey to Afghanistan.
The concerned intelligence agency group has broader aspirations.
The “ungoverned spaces” in Afghanistan have been a source of concern for MI5 ever since the regime that the West sponsored collapsed in August 2021.
ISIS-K has claimed accountability for attacks that occurred across the border in Iran in addition to a string of assaults in Afghanistan.
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While the majority of their assaults have occurred within Afghanistan, Western intelligence agencies are aware of their broader strategic intentions.
Thirteen American service members and one hundred Afghans were slain when ISIS-K attacked the lines outside Kabul’s international airport with a suicide bombing and gunfire during the chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan.
A linked English-language online publication to ISIS-K, Voice of Khorasan, referred to the United Kingdom of non-believers in January as the “United Kingdom of Kafir” and drew attention to the country’s involvement in the Middle East since the Crusades of the Middle Ages.
