WASHINGTON: The United States claimed on Monday it was committed to destroying the so-called Islamic State group, which bombed a voter registration centre in Kabul on Sunday, killing 57 people and injuring 119.

“The United States, along with our Afghan and international partners, is committed to destroying ISIS in Afghanistan, which has claimed responsibility for this vicious attack,” said US Acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan. “We stand with the people and government of Afghanistan in their fight against terrorism.”

The group — known as the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) in the region — is active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States declared IS-K a foreign terrorist organisation on Sept 29, 2015, but Pakistan is more focused on IS-K, as most of its activists come from anti-Pakistan militant groups, such as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

“This senseless violence targeting innocent civilians exercising their fundamental democratic rights exposes the savagery and inhumanity of terrorists,” said Sullivan while condemning Sunday’s suicide attack.

Last year, Gen John Nicholson, who commands US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that TTP provided the core fighting group for IS-K.

He also claimed that TTP militants from Pakistan’s Orakzai tribal agency joined IS-K en masse.

Almost all these militants consider Pakistan their main enemy and have carried out dozens of attacks inside Pakistan, killing hundreds of civilians, including children at schools.

IS-K has set up bases inside Afghanistan and Islamabad claims that they receive assistance from both India and Afghanistan for attacking targets inside Pakistan.

In his statement to the Senate panel, Gen Nicholson also acknowledged that former TTP members in IS-K were fighting the Pakistani state.

“The majority of the fighters in the IS right now came from the TTP, the Pakistani Taliban, and joined the banner of the IS,” he said.

Although IS-K is a US-designated a terrorist group, until recently, the United States did not consider it a major threat to its interests in Afghanistan, but a sudden increase in IS-K activities, particularly its attacks on Afghanistan government targets, seem to have persuaded Washington to renew its pledge to eliminating IS-K.

While the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan, and Iran have expressed concern about IS-K, Afghanistan and India see it as a breakaway faction of TTP, which can be useful for creating problems for Pakistan.

The Trump administration also worries that IS-K’s growing influence in Afghanistan could weaken the Afghan Taliban at a time when Washington is hoping to negotiate a truce with that group.

IS-K was formed in early 2014 by defectors from groups like the Al Tawhid Brigade, and Ansar-ul-Khilafat Wal-Jihad but in August 2015, thousands of TTP and Junullah defectors also joined the group. The defections followed the August 2015 announcement of Mullah Omar’s death.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018