ISIS Offers New Profession-Terrorist To Local In Afghanistan As Well As Its Enemies The Taliban

Ads11

Ads2

As unemployment worsens in strife-torn Afghanistan, the Islamic State has arrived to help the jobless with a lucrative new profession: terrorist. The insurgent group has made significant headway in Afghanistan and is recruiting local villagers, as well as its enemy -- the Taliban -- to paid jobs in order to expand its influence across the north, according to local Afghan officials. 

 Hundreds of local villagers from remote areas of the Faryab and Jawzjan provinces and several Taliban commanders with more than 300 fighters have pledged allegiance to ISIS in the past six months, Mohammad Sami Khairkhowah, the head of provincial council of Faryab said by phone. 

They are paid above $500 monthly, thrice the wage of a government soldier, he said. Several Afghan lawmakers confirmed the issue and expressed deep frustration over government's inability to stop it. The group is recruiting people "openly and publicly" in the region, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, the speaker of lower house of parliament, told lawmakers in a June session.

 And in April, the U.S. dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on Islamic State hideouts in Nangarhar, killing as many as 100. However it's feared the group may expand further into the country's north. For the first time since their emergence in 2014, it gained control of the Darzab district in June.

 Among the former Taliban commanders who switched allegiance to the Islamic State are Maulavi Assadullah, Mullah Sufi Qayum and Mullah Nemat Mufti, who brought with him 200 armed fighters.  
The Islamic State targets young men who failed to find a government job or whose farm work does not cover their family expenses, lawmaker Fawzia Raufi, who represents Faryab in the lower house of Parliament, said by phone.

 On Aug. 5, Islamic State militants teamed up with newly-formed Taliban groups to attack Mirza Olang village in Sar-e Pul province, killing more than 50 people, according to Zabihullah Amani, the provincial spokesman.

 Security incidents by militants jumped 21 percent from March through May compared with the previous quarter, with more than 5,000 civilians killed or wounded in the first half of 2017, according to a July report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. watchdog. 

 More than half of Faryab province is threatened by the presence of both militant groups, said the local lawmaker, Raufi.

Ads3