Competition between the great powers and current geopolitical upheavals (Ukraine war, Hamas-Israel war) have put the fight against terrorism on the back burner. Even if the jihadists are still on the warpath.
The Afghan branch of IS – the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K) – claimed responsibility for the attack which left at least 133 dead and 121 injured on Friday in the suburbs of Moscow.
The group takes its name from the ancient caliphate which encompassed parts of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan. Created in 2014 by dissident Pakistani Taliban, EI-K has built a fearsome reputation for its acts of bloodthirsty brutality.
Washington publicly warned Russia on March 7 that a terrorist attack was being prepared in Moscow. The Americans had already privately informed the Russian security services of the intentions of the dissident jihadists of EI-K. U.S. intelligence agency protocols state that they have a “duty to warn” potential targets of terrorist attacks when they become aware of them. Even the opponents.
Putin responded by describing the American alert as a “provocation” with the aim of intimidating and destabilizing Russia.
Why Russia now?
Russia’s involvement in the global fight against the Islamic State and its affiliates as well as its efforts to establish ties with the Afghan Taliban – IS-K’s rivals – have long made Russia a key adversary.
Russia is accused of being “a crusading power against Muslims” in Chechnya, Syria and Afghanistan. The deadliest jihadist attack in Russia was the storming of the Beslan school in 2004 by an Islamist group demanding independence for Chechnya. Toll: 334 killed, including 186 children.
In early March, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it had foiled ISIS’s plan to attack a Moscow synagogue.
Against EI-K, the Washington-Tehran axis
When American intelligence services warned Tehran that ISIS was going to attack Iran, the mullahs ignored the alert. Result: dozens of deaths and hundreds of injured when a bomb exploded during the memorial service for Iranian General Qassim Suleimani killed by an American drone strike in Iraq. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack. The enemy of our enemy is also our enemy.
Strange, right? To confront this jihadist resurgence, the United States is working with Russia, Iran and the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Even after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States maintained limited cooperation with the Afghan Taliban against ISIS, using U.S. air power to attack ISIS positions along the Pakistani border.
The Afghan Taliban government is also considered a “brother enemy” by the renegade EI-K jihadists who have already carried out two attacks in Kabul in 2022. The first, against a maternity ward, killed 24 women and infants. The second against Kabul University left at least 22 teachers and students dead. In September 2022, the group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul.
Other attacks are undoubtedly being prepared by ISIS in Russia and elsewhere. This should concern the Israelis because of the way they are waging their war in Gaza. Israel can destroy Hamas, but not its ideology. By inflicting such suffering on Palestinians, Israel is creating new generations of hateful activists across the Muslim world.