Changing times A question for the west: who is an enemy, and who is a friend?

After the bloodshed at Kabul airport, the grim reality for those who want to prevent Islamic State’s affiliate causing further murder and mayhem in Afghanistan is that, in practice, their best partner for this complex and difficult battle would be the Taliban.

- Jason Burke

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) – the name is borrowed from that used by early Islamic empires to describe much of modern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan – was founded six years ago. Until last week it had been something of a failure. Its early gains were rapidly lost as the Taliban fought back hard: they were not going to allow an upstart newcomer, particularly one largely composed of disaffected former Taliban commanders, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, to take over.

In 2019 and early 2020, a series of Taliban offensives, as well as US and Afghan government operations, devastated ISKP in eastern Afghanistan, reducing its hold on territory to two small valleys in Kunar, the northeast frontier province. Yet despite several offensives this year, the Taliban have not been able to evict ISKP’s fighters from these bases. Now that the Taliban no longer have to fight elsewhere, many more forces can be concentrated against them and they may well be eliminated soon.

Though this would be a significant blow to ISKP, it underlines the dilemma facing the US.