ISIS is expanding in Afghanistan and may be plotting to attack western targets from the country.

Noor Mohammad and his family fled from ISIS. AP.

ISIS is expanding in Afghanistan and may use the country to launch attacks on Western targets. AP. ISIS has greatly expanded both their capabilities and their targeting of civilians. Things are so bad that the United States may consider working with the Taliban, a fundamentalist terrorist group that has battled the United States since the war began in 2001. Intelligence officials believe that the recent attacks on Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, may be "dry runs" for attacks on the west. ISIS in Afghanistan now has thousands of fighters, boosted by both local forces and regional terrorists who are flocking to their territory. At least 8 arrests in the United States have been linked to ISIS's Afghanistan province. 

My Comment:

ISIS in Afghanistan has largely flown under the radar for Western media sources. Though I think there is a general awareness of ISIS's existence in Afghanistan, you rarely see this kind of in depth reporting on the issue. 

I long said that after Syria and Iraq were liberated from ISIS that they would seek a backup country. Afghanistan was always one of the best candidates as they do not have a strong central government and already have a major ISIS presence. It seems as though I was right as it looks like the Afghanistan group is the biggest and most threatening of the remaining ISIS cells. 

However, even I didn't think things were as serious as they apparently are. The idea that the United States could work with the Taliban, of all people, to fight ISIS is a very bad sign. The Taliban has been our national enemy since 2001 and is responsible for most of the 2000+ deaths America has suffered their. They are also ideological enemies and we have every reason to hate them.

That being said, they have been effective at fighting against ISIS in Afghanistan. They have been in several open battles and have killed quite a few terrorists. With the Afghan government and military being a joke, they probably are the best alternative to ISIS left. 

Of course, the main problem is the weakness of the central government. The government is rife with corruption and incompetence and their military has been taking unsustainable casualties for a long time. They are losing the war with the Taliban and are not even in the position to effectively fight ISIS as well. Indeed, ISIS may have indirectly helped the Afghan government by giving the Taliban another enemy to fight. 

Does Afghanistan pose a threat to the United States? I;m not sure. ISIS has used their strongholds to launch major attacks before and could use them again. The main problem is getting forces outside of Afghanistan into Western countries. They could go overland to Europe but getting to America would be a major problem. 

Funding is also a problem. Even though ISIS controls some territory in Afghanistan they don't have any of the resources, like oil and other commodities, to fund their terror attacks. All they have is a minor tax base from an already poor and impoverished people. That doesn't leave a lot of money to fund terror attacks.  

Hopefully a solution is found soon. I think we should probably step up our bombing campaign against ISIS targets in Afghanistan. I don't think another troop deployment is necessary, but we do want to make sure that ISIS doesn't expand any further.