MI5 intensifying efforts to counter ISIS-K amid resurgence in Afghanistan

KABUL -- MI5, the United Kingdom's domestic intelligence agency, are focusing on the threat of overseas terrorist groups amid increased activity by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" Khorasan branch (ISIS-K) in Afghanistan.

The combined threat of ISIS and al-Qaeda is the "terrorist trend that concerns me most," MI5's director general Ken McCallum said October 8 in London.

"Today's [ISIS] is not the force it was a decade ago. But ... they've resumed efforts to export terrorism," he said.

"The [ISIS-K] attack in Moscow was a brutal demonstration of its capabilities. We and many European partners are detecting [ISIS]-connected activity in our homelands, which we are moving early to disrupt."

"Over the last month more than a third of our top priority investigations have had some form of connection ... to organized overseas terrorist groups," he said.

"We're also seeing far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism," he added.

McCallum cited two brothers from Birmingham who were sentenced to prison last November for attempting to join ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

Other issues the authorities are confronting stem from "online hatred, conspiracy theories and disinformation," he said.

"We're encountering more volatile would-be terrorists with only a tenuous grasp of the ideologies they profess to follow," McCallum said.

The United Nations in July warned of the increasing activities of some groups in Afghanistan, including ISIS-K and al-Qaeda, and their potential threat to global security.

Threats at home and abroad

Meanwhile, Kabul officials have repeatedly downplayed the growing activities of ISIS-K in Afghanistan.

Their lack of response has compounded the ISIS-K threat for both the Afghan people and neighboring countries, said Muhammad Omar Saeedi, an Afghan political analyst based in Paris.

"Terrorist groups like ISIS-K and al-Qaeda threaten not only the Afghan people but also regional security," he told Salaam Times.

"Unfortunately, it has become impossible for the [Kabul] government to prevent this group's complex operations and attacks," he said.

Afghans are deeply concerned about the resurgence of terrorist groups, especially ISIS-K, said Mansoor Hosseini, 42, a Kabul resident.

"The [Kabul] government is acting weakly against ISIS-K, but this bloodthirsty group is killing our people as we have seen in the past," he said.

If the Kabul administration needs help against ISIS-K, it "should seek international assistance," Hosseini said. "We ... just want to survive, and the government must ensure our security."

Terrorist groups consider Afghanistan friendly territory because official inaction against them eases their penetration of neighboring countries, said Col. Sibghatullah Mohammadi, a former Afghan military officer now living in Islamabad.

"Terrorist groups in Afghanistan, especially ISIS-K and al-Qaeda, continue to advance," he said.

"ISIS-K has grown in northern Afghanistan, recruiting among Tajik and Uzbek communities, and has increased the stockpiling of weapons and ammunition in mountainous areas," he added.