EER Podcast: Assessing the Threat from the Islamic State in Afghanistan

Dr Antonio Giustozzi, a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), speakS about the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). The discussion covers the origins of ISKP; how ISIS at the “centre” played on cleavages in Afghanistan and specifically the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP or “Pakistani Taliban”) to establish itself; the evolution of ISKP in the years since; the relationship of ISKP to the Salafist communities in Afghanistan; the ISKP-Taliban war; the condition of ISKP since the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021; and the reality of ISKP’s international terrorism threat.