Khorasan Province Group, full name of the Islamic Republic of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province is a local branch of ISIS operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the BBC, this group is the most extremist and violent group among the “armed jihadists” present in Afghanistan.
The group was formed in January 2015, when ISIS was at its height in Iraq and Syria, and the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate had not yet been overthrown by the United States and its allies.
They are recruited from both Afghan extremist fighters and Pakistani extremist fighters, especially former members of the Taliban who do not consider their organization extremist enough.
How extremist is this extremist group?
The Khorasan provincial group has been blamed for some of the worst crimes in recent years, including targeting girls’ schools, hospitals, and even attacking a maternity ward and killing pregnant women and nurses.
Unlike the Taliban, whose targets are limited to Afghanistan, the group is part of ISIL’s global network, which seeks to attack Western, international and humanitarian targets whenever the conditions allow.
Where is this group based?
The members of the group are based in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, around drug and human trafficking routes to and from Pakistan.
The group had about 3,000 members at its peak – but has suffered significant casualties in clashes with US and Afghan security forces, as well as the Taliban.
Is it related to the Taliban?
Basically, yes, through a third group called the Haqqani Network. Researchers say the Khorasan provincial group has strong ties to the Haqqani network, which in turn has close ties to the Taliban.
Dr. Sejan Gohel, a member of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, has been monitoring armed groups in Afghanistan for several years.
“Several major attacks were carried out between 2019 and 2021 in collaboration with the Khorasan Provincial Group, the Haqqani Network, the Taliban and other terrorist groups based in Pakistan,” he said.
When the Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, they opened the doors of Pol-e Charkhi prison and released a large number of convicts, including those allegedly belonging to ISIS and al-Qaeda. These people are now spinning freely.
But the Khorasan provincial group also has significant differences with the Taliban, accusing them of abandoning “jihad” and saying the group has preferred peace to Doha over the battlefield through negotiations in “luxury hotels”.
ISIL’s armed forces are now a major challenge for the future Taliban government; Common issues between the Taliban leadership and Western intelligence agencies.