Yesterday on Fox News Outnumbered, Kash Patel, Trump's Chief of Staff for the Pentagon, and Director of Counter-terrorism, let slip this very important revelation on how the Trump Administration had been conducting counter-terrorism in Afghanistan:
ISIS-K and Al Qaeda are normally fighting each other, and we normally, under President Trump, let them kill each other because they're two foreign terrorist organizations that are enemies of the United States.
The revelation that the Trump Administration's policy towards fighting ISKP and Al Qaeda has been to "let them kill each other" is extremely troubling because they haven't been just killing each other, both of these terror organizations have mainly been killing innocent Afghans.
The Islamic State of Khorasan Province, also known by its initials ISKP, and renamed ISIS-K, by the western media, is the newer terrorist threat in the region. It is the group widely believed responsible for the two suicide attacks that killed over a hundred people, including 13 US soldiers, outside of Kabul Airport yesterday. It is the sworn enemy of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, who they consider anathema. While Trump was in office, it emerged as the most dangerous of all the international Islamic terror organizations. Although it started in Khorasan Province, Afghanistan in 2015, in recent years it has expanded its reach throughout South Asia. In particular, it is a growing threat in India, and the Kashmir region. According to this comprehensive ORF report on ISKP, it is "arguably is the most visceral ISIS wilayat (an administrative division), with capabilities of orchestrating some of the most violent attacks in the country across the civilian and governmental spectrum." It has also been showing "increasing potency in parts of Africa." After ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi committed suicide, rather than be captured by US Delta forces in October 2019, ISKP began to eclipse even ISIS itself. According to the ORF report, "Since the 2014–2017 period, anecdotal evidence, especially online, points to IS-K as having a stronger play in South Asia than ISIS central."
Because US media rarely bothers to cover terror attacks in which Americans aren't killed, yesterday's revelation of the brutality and lethality of ISKP may be news to us, but it is well known in Afghanistan and other parts of South Asia just what horrors this terror group, that the Trump Administration "let kill," according to his Director of Counter-terrorism, is capable of. Here is brief survey of its most deadly attacks in the past few years:
On 9 September 2018 ISKP claimed 55 causalities in a suicide bombing in Kabul. The next day it killed an Indian intelligence official in Kashmir.
At an election day rally in Nangarhar, 2 October 2018, ISKP claimed 90 causalities.
On 3 October 2018, the Taliban again accused the US forces of supporting ISKP through airstrikes. In August 2018, they also accused US forces of "rescuing" ISKP in Nangarhar. In light of Kash Patel's admission, these Taliban claims deserves further investigation.
On 5 October 2018, ISKP bombed the USAID Building in Nangarhar.
On 21 March 2019, ISKP claimed 50 causalities among Shi'ites in 3 bombings near a shrine in Kabul.
On 8 April 2019 ISKP claimed to have killed 21 Afghan security and intelligence personnel in 4 attacks in Jalalabad in 5 days.
On 13 April 2019, ISKP claimed 70 casualties among Hazara Shi'ites and Pakistani soldiers in a suicude bombing in Quetta.
On 21 April 2019, ISKP claimed 30 casualties in a 4-man suicide raid at the Afghan communications ministry in Kabul.
On 30 May 2019, ISKP killed 50 military trainees in suicide bombing outside of the Marshal Fahim National Defense University.
On 2 June 2019, ISKP claimed 33 causalities among Shi'ites, journalists, and security forces in 3 IED blasts in Kabul.
On 13 June 2019, Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders reiterated their charge that ISKP is an enemy "puppet."
On 19 June 2019, ISKP claimed 21 causalities on the Taliban in Kunar. Two days later, the Taliban charged the US with rescuing ISKP in Kunar. Four days later, ISKP made advances, and killed 20 Taliban fighters in Kunar.
On 29 June 2019, ISKP claimed more than 25 casualties among Taliban fighters in Nangarhar.
On 6 July 2019, ISKP claimed 40 casualties from a bombing inside a Shi'ite Mosque in Ghazni.
On 7 August 2019, ISKP ambushed Afghan forces in Kabul, killing or wounding 20.
On 18 August 2019, ISKP claimed 400 casualties among Shi'ites and security forces in two bombings at a Kabul wedding hall.
On 9 September 2019, ISKP claimed 52 casualties in Kabul during a remembrance of Ahmad Shah Massous.
On 8 October 2019, ISKP claimed 30 casualties among Shi'ites in Ghazni blast, and 40 soldiers killed or wounded in a VBIED attack in Jalalabad.
On 13 November 2019, Taliban accused Afghan government of rescuing besieged ISKP fighters in Nangarhar. Four days later, the Taliban announced the defeat of ISKP in Kunar and Nangarhar.
On 27 February 2020, ISKP claimed 30 casualties among Shi'ites in a bike bombing in Kabul.
On 6 March 2020, ISKP claimed 150 casualties in a suicide attack at a ceremony in Kabul.
On 12 May 2020, ISKP claimed 100 casualties in a suicide attack at a funeral in Nangarhar.
In a prison raid in Jalalabad on 3 August 2020, ISKP claimed to have killed 100 security personnel and freed hundreds of inmates.
On 24 October 2020, ISKP claims killing 25 and wounding 50 in a Kabul suicide operation.
On Human Rights Day, 10 December 2020, Malalai Maiwand, 26, was murdered by ISKP. She became the third journalist killed by the group in less than a month.
On 28 December 2020, ISKP claimed 20 casualties among justice ministry staff in Kabul.
On 13 January 2021, ISKP reported 20 Afghan security forces killed or wounded in house raid in Jalalabad.
On 3 March 2021, ISKP claimed credit for the shooting deaths of three female television station employees in Jalalabad.
On 28 May 2021, ISKP attempted to assassinate the Kunar governor with a bomb blast in Nangarhar.
On 1 June 2021, ISKP bombed a bus carrying Hazaras in Parwan. The next day they bombed buses carrying Shi'a Hazara in Kabul, and claimed a car bombing on Afghan special forces in Jalalabad.
On 4 June 2021, ISKP claimed 24 casualties among Shi'a Hazara in two bombings in Kabul.
On 14 June 2021, ISKP claimed 23 casualties among Shi'a Hazara in two bombings in Kabul.
On 9 July 2021, ISKP claimed 13 casualties in bomb blast on a minibus transporting "polytheists" in Herat.
On 12 July 2021, ISKP claimed 18 casualties in blast on NDS and Kabul governor's office staff.
On 3 August 2021, ISKP claimed 14 casualties in MIED blast on a bus transporting Shi'a Hazaras in Herat.
On 26 August 2021, ISKP claimed over 100 deaths, including 13 US military personnel in suicide bombings outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport. The American people are shocked by this latest attack because US corporate media hasn't regarded these preceding attacks as newsworthy. Nor was this the first time ISKP has attacked the airport. HKIA has been the target of attacks on 26 December 2020, and 12 December 2020,
This is just a sampling of the carnage the Trump administration was letting ISKP commit, according Kash Patel's admission, or even helping them commit, according to Taliban accusations. Did US President Donald J. Trump's response to this growing terror threat by saying "let them kill each other?" Were those the marching orders he gave to Kash Patel, his Pentagon Chief of Staff, and Director of Counter-terrorism? Did he allow ISKP to metastasize all over South Asia because he knew they opposed Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and was he following an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" strategy towards this new terrorist group? The appropriate congressional committees should call upon Kash Patel to testify, and ask these important questions.
Clay Claiborne
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