AT LEAST THE TALIBAN IS BETTER ARMED NOW:

When ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the False Caliph of Raqqa, announced the creation of the Islamic State, he was declaring war not only against the United States and its allies, but also against al Qaeda and the Taliban. This fomented a civil war in which al Qaeda and ISIS franchises would compete with one another all across the world. One of these battlegrounds is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or Khorasan in jihadist parlance. ISIS-K and the Taliban have been at war since 2015, forcing third-party jihadists to choose a side.

In recent years, ISIS-K saw most of its territory lost, some to the now-defunct Afghan government and other parts to the Taliban. With ISIS-K perceived as the more dangerous actor, third parties have coordinated with the Taliban to oppose ISIS. Pakistan is one such actor, while another is Russia. Over the last couple years, ISIS-K has largely resorted to terrorist attacks, several of which have been highly lethal. In May, ISIS-K was likely responsible for over 90 killed in a terrorist attack on a high school in Kabul, and there are dozens of incidents that could be invoked as well. With the Taliban having near-complete control over Afghanistan, it was inevitable that ISIS-K would take action. Indeed, this might be their last chance to obtain victory.

ISIS does not believe that the Taliban are a legitimate jihadist actor. When it saw the Taliban's rapid rise to prominence in the war against the Afghan government, ISIS declared that the takeover was the result of a corrupt conspiracy between the United States and the Taliban. All the proof it needed was that the Taliban was not preventing U.S. citizens and local partners from escaping through the Kabul airport. Any local Muslims who worked with the United States and were leaving the country are considered apostates to ISIS, and as such could have takfir (excommunication) placed upon them. In the war between ISIS and the Taliban, our local partners are, and remain, a priority target.

The Taliban had reached agreement with the U.S. to "control security outside of the gates," retired U.S. Gen. Mark Kimmitt tells BBC News. "For the Taliban to fail in that mission is an indicator of what's to come." They are trying to prove to the world they can govern responsibly, he added, "and if they have failed in this simple mission -- they obviously have been embarrassed heavily."

ISIS-K took hold in Afghanistan in 2015, and even as the Taliban fought the U.S. with the remnants of al Qaeda, "it has been been waging a separate but parallel war against its rival Islamist group," The Wall Street Journal reports. Starting in 2017, the Taliban, U.S. military, and the U.S.-backed Afghan forces routed ISIS-K. But "as with other Islamic State affiliates, ISIS-K has stayed nimble and able to regroup after military blows," the Post reports.

"ISIS-K's main goal right now is to stay politically relevant, disrupt efforts to stabilize the country, and also undermine the Afghan Taliban's credibility" through high-profile terrorism, Amira Jadoon, an ISIS-K expert at the U.S. Military Academy, told the Post. "Without U.S. support or Afghan security forces," she added, "I don't think we can realistically expect the Taliban to constrain ISIS-K" alone.

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