Dozens of people were killed, and more wounded, in an attack carried out by the Islamic State Khorasan on a military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday.
As reported by The New York Times:
The attack, which included armed gunmen and at least one suicide bomber, targeted the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan military hospital in one of Kabul’s more affluent neighborhoods, where both wounded soldiers who fought for the former government and Taliban fighters were being treated.
The outlet noted that Zabihullah Mujahid, “a spokesman for the Taliban, said the attack was carried out by several members of the Islamic State, including a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives at the gate to the hospital. A car full of explosives outside the hospital also exploded, wounding dozens, and several Taliban fighters were killed and wounded in the ensuing gun battle, Mr. Mujahid said.”
The Islamic State Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the attack later.
Afghanistan has been in a steady state of decline since the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region under the leadership of President Joe Biden in August.
As The Daily Wire reported, “many starving families have resorted to selling their pre-pubescent girls into marriages with older men in order to survive.”
“Though marrying off children under 15 is illegal nationwide, it has been commonly practiced for years, especially in more rural parts of Afghanistan. And it has only spread since August, driven by widespread hunger and desperation,” CNN reported.
Some Afghans who assisted the United States have now been forced to join ISIS-K after the Biden administration left them after withdrawing the U.S. military from the country.
As The Daily Wire reported, “The Wall Street Journal reported that many turned to the Islamic State because they lacked income and were being hunted by the Taliban, which took over the country in mid-August as the U.S. withdrew its troops.”
“The number of defectors joining the terrorist group is relatively small, but growing, according to Taliban leaders, former Afghan republic security officials and people who know the defectors. Importantly, these new recruits bring to Islamic State critical expertise in intelligence-gathering and warfare techniques, potentially strengthening the extremist organization’s ability to contest Taliban supremacy,” the Journal reported.
There has been an uptick in ISIS-K attacks throughout Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August.
In August, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the Kabul terror attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghans.
As reported by Reuters, the Islamic State took responsibility for the attack — something that was highly suspected.
As The Daily Wire reported, the group is known as “ISIS-K,” which specifies it as the “Khorasan” branch of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Khorasan is a wider historical region and “a vast territory now lying in northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan,” per Britannica.
A 2018 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted, “Like the Islamic State’s core leadership in Iraq and Syria, IS-K seeks to establish a Caliphate beginning in South and Central Asia, governed by sharia law, which will expand as Muslims from across the region and world join.”
“IS-K has received support from the Islamic State’s core leadership in Iraq and Syria since its founding in 2015,” the report stated.