Islamic State Loyalists Have Reportedly Kidnapped 30 Hazara Shias in Afghanistan | World Defense

Islamic State Loyalists Have Reportedly Kidnapped 30 Hazara Shias in Afghanistan

Scorpion

THINK TANK: SENIOR
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
3,868
Reactions
3,197 56 0
Country
Saudi Arabia
Location
Saudi Arabia
Islamic State Loyalists Have Reportedly Kidnapped 30 Hazara Shias in Afghanistan

Militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State were behind the Monday abduction of 30 members of the ethnic Hazara minority in southern Afghanistan, according to local officials.

Gunmen reportedly seized the hostages after stopping two buses traveling on the Kabul-Kandahar highway through Zabul province. The deputy police chief in Zabul province told CBS News that Islamic State loyalists were responsible for the abductions.

The gunmen "took 11 people from one bus and 20 people from the second bus," said Ghulam Jilani Farahi, the deputy police chief, adding that a search operation was underway. VICE News could not independently verify those claims.

Abdul Khaliq Ayubi, a government official, told CBS the militants wore the black clothes and masks associated with fighters for the self-proclaimed caliphate, adding that witnesses said they spoke a different language.

Disgruntled Ex-Taliban Members Now Fighting and Recruiting for the Islamic State in Afghanistan. Read more here.

Reports of the Islamic State's presence in Afghanistan have become more frequent in recent months — particularly after some high-ranking members of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban switched ranks and pledged allegiance to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Militants claiming affiliation with the radical Sunni group have also engaged in fighting against local Taliban members and reportedly killed a Taliban commander in Logar province. One account described armed men forcing their way into local homes, smashing television sets, antennas, and recording devices and warning residents against watching television.

Despite the recent incidents, the Islamic State's presence in Afghanistan remains small — and logistical ties to the group's strongholds in Iraq and Syria appear to be limited.

Earlier this month, Mullah Abdul Rauf, a former Guantanamo detainee and Taliban commander who defected to the Islamic State, was killed in a drone attack.

All the men kidnapped on Monday were Hazara, a Shia minority group often targeted by the Taliban, who are mainly Sunni members of the Pashtun ethnicity. Last July, 16 Hazaras were executed by Taliban militants after they were separated from other passengers traveling on a bus through the central province of Ghor.

Chaos in Libya provides fertile ground for Islamic State propaganda. Read more here.

"We contacted the Taliban through tribal elders but Taliban said they are not behind this kidnapping. We believe they are Daesh," Ayubi told CBS about the latest abduction, using the acronym for the Islamic State's full Arabic name.

Anand Gopal, an analyst and author of a book on the US war in Afghanistan, told VICE News earlier this year that reports of the Islamic State in Afghanistan should be treated with caution because of the historic weakness of foreign-linked Islamic groups in the country.

"Afghan officials have a tendency to play up the ISIS threat as a way of trying to capture the West's flagging attention," Gopal said. "With that being said, however, it does appear that a few disgruntled Afghan Taliban members are rebranding themselves as ISIS."
 

Redheart

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Dec 26, 2014
Messages
1,239
Reactions
319 0 0
Country
USA
Location
USA
This is what makes ISIS far more dangerous than any terrorist group. All it takes to transform a civilized person into a savage is swearing allegiance to al Baghdadi and once that's done they have to do everything ISIS has been doing. While it might be easy to squash these smaller terrorist cells unless the serpent's head is crushed even if you cut off part of it's tail, it can still grow a new one. ISIS needs to be defeated. Their defeat would demoralize their affiliates making it easier to neutralize them.
 

wahmed

MEMBER
Joined
Mar 19, 2015
Messages
45
Reactions
5 0 0
Country
United Kingdom
Location
United Kingdom
I think this is horrendous. As a muslin I know that Islam is a very peaceful religion. It is these people of little minds and bad intebntiond that slander its name in a misinterpreted version of jihad
 
Top