What’s so great about Afghanistan that over the past 40+ years so many have attempted to take over the country. From the Soviet Union to the Taliban to now ISIS, there’s gotta be something in the water – PB/TK
Here’s why ISIS is failing to take Afghanistan – Newsweek/Mirren Gidda March 25 2017
Of all the countries the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has tried to conquer, Afghanistan has proved the toughest. The country’s resilience is particularly impressive given ISIS’ continued terrorist attacks, designed to instill fear across its provinces.
On March 5, the group released an execution video from its stronghold in Achin, a district of Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan. In the film, two men kneel before the militants, who accuse them of working as government spies. One is shot in the head, the other is decapitated. Three days after the video came out, a bomb went off at the rear of a military hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Gunmen dressed as medics then entered the building and opened fire, leading to an hours-long battle with security forces. The final death toll was 38 people, with dozens more injured. ISIS’ Amaq news agency wasted no time in taking credit.
Taken together and in isolation, these two events seem to suggest that ISIS is thriving in Afghanistan, just as it once did in Libya, Iraq and Syria. One could make the assumption that in Afghanistan, the group is maintaining its perverse version of law and order throughout its territory, while still having the organization and resources to strike the capital. It’s what ISIS would like you to think—but it may not be true.
ISIS’ position in Afghanistan is getting weaker by the day. U.S. forces have promised to defeat the group by the end of the year, while NATO and Afghan troops have already cut the number of districts the group holds from more than 10 to between three and five.
It is a humiliating loss for ISIS, which has failed to make any significant headway in Afghanistan, a country that the Afghanistan Analysts’ Network describes as having “historical cache as the home of the first successful jihad of modern times.” Split into 398 districts, only a tiny part of Afghanistan ever belonged to ISIS. Now, less than two and a half years after the group’s commanders (a bunch of former Pakistan Taliban members) pledged allegiance to ISIS, the group looks to be in the sunset of a fairly dismal attempt to raise its black flag over Afghanistan.
Continue to rawstory.com article: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/heres-why-isis-is-failing-to-take-afghanistan/
