UK Edition
Taliban takeover of Afghanistan a ‘US-backed conspiracy’, says Islamic State
Rambling editorial seeks to present the Taliban as fake jihadists and reflects the deep animosity between the groups
The Islamic State group has lashed out at the Taliban, its regional foe, in a bitter editorial which baselessly claims the takeover of Afghanistan is a US-backed conspiracy.
In a rambling propaganda piece, published in the Islamic State’s al-Naba newsletter, the group seeks to present the Taliban as fake jihadists and alleges that the group is collaborating with the United States.
The article, which is incoherent in parts, reflects a deep and longstanding animosity between IS and the Taliban.
IS has a presence in Afghanistan in Khorasan province, and is a sworn enemy of the Taliban due to differing ideologies.
“We have seen how there was direct coordination between the American forces and the Taliban during the advance towards Kabul, and how the evacuation operations for thousands of the crusaders and spies have continued amid high trust between the two sides,” reads one extract of the editorial.
“What has happened is merely the replacement of a shaved Taghut with another that is bearded,” continues the article, which has been translated by Syrian affairs analyst Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi.
“Taghut” is an Arabic word referring to the worship of false idols, in a clear sign of the Islamic State’s animosity towards the Taliban.
The piece goes on to claim that if the US truly believed the Taliban were set to impose Islamic law, then it would have bombed the country into oblivion as it withdrew troops.
“If the crusaders had suspected that they had left the land to those who would establish the rule of Islam in it, they would not have left a house standing in it and they would have bombed its hospitals before its military camps,” it states.
However, former UK intelligence chiefs have warned that the Taliban takeover could turn the country into an “operating space” for other extremist groups such as IS.
“There have been reports already of Islamic State elements present in Afghanistan and if they get the opportunity to put down infrastructure and train then that will pose a threat to the West more widely,” Jonathan Evans, the former head of MI5, told the BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.
“There’s also the psychological effect of the inspiration that some people will draw from the failure of Western power in Afghanistan and that may well create a certain amount of energy in the wider networks that are still in existence in Britain and across the west.”