exclusive
German security authorities are warning of the growing threat of attacks by the Afghan branch of the terrorist group “Islamic State”. The group is currently expanding its network at high pressure.
A few years ago, such a report would have been unthinkable: the Taliban are said to have killed an Islamist terrorist in Afghanistan at the beginning of April. A commander of the terrorist group “Islamic State” (IS). Namely the alleged mastermind behind the bomb attack at Kabul Airport in August 2021, in which more than 150 people, including 13 US soldiers, were murdered.
John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, announced the death of the IS terrorist on Wednesday. And it almost seemed as if the US government was extremely grateful to the Taliban, the new Afghan rulers, for this successful “anti-terrorist operation” – and in fact that’s a bit like that. Although the Taliban are also characterized by a radical Islamic ideology, they are enemies of the IS jihadists, and the two groups are fighting each other bitterly.
Concern about IS terror in Germany too
According to Western security authorities, however, the IS terrorists pose a much greater threat. In Germany, too, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police authorities are currently very concerned about the growing risk of Islamist attacks in this country. In Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group IS was largely crushed or at least pushed back significantly. The offshoot of the network in Afghanistan, the so-called IS province “Khorasan” (ISPK), on the other hand, puts the German counter-terrorists on alert.
“The strengthening of this group in Afghanistan increases the threat situation in Germany,” warned Thomas Haldenwang, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a few weeks ago. And the commander of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, recently predicted at a hearing before the US Senate that the Afghan IS offshoot would probably be able to attack Western targets outside of Afghanistan in less than six months .
ISPK network is said to be planning attacks in the West
According to representatives of the local security authorities, it is definitely more than the usual “background noise” in the Islamist scene that is currently causing increased alertness. According to Western intelligence services, the Afghan IS branch ISPK has built up a network of supporters and helpers over the past few months in order to be able to carry out terrorist attacks abroad, especially in Europe.
German intelligence officers warn that the group is working flat out to carry out larger attacks in the West. On the one hand, radicalized Islamists in Europe should be specifically addressed via chat groups and encrypted communication channels, recruited and instructed, for example, in the manufacture of explosives and bombs. There have also been cases like this in Germany recently.
In September 2022, two young Islamists were arrested in Iserlohn and Bremerhaven, who are said to have communicated with IS members in Afghanistan via mobile phone chats. Among them was a high-ranking IS commander, a native Tajik who had last lived in Germany and then left for Afghanistan.
Foundation of a German IS cell planned?
According to the Attorney General, the young people who were arrested recruited other Islamists via chat groups, called for attacks and distributed Islamist propaganda and bomb-making instructions. The 17-year-old terror suspect from Bremerhaven is said to have been instructed by his IS contact in Afghanistan to set up an IS cell in Germany and act as its “emir”. At times he is said to have led a German-language telegram group with more than 30 members.
The 16-year-old suspect from Iserlohn, on the other hand, is said to have planned a bomb attack, but is said to have moved away from this plan and is said to have considered carrying out a knife attack on police officers instead. The two underage Islamists have now been charged before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg.
In the security authorities, however, concern about attacks by IS terrorists is also increasing because there are supposed to be findings that potential terrorist cells are being smuggled into Europe. In some cases this should already have happened. According to security circles, the ISPK has already exploited the recent movement of refugees to smuggle in terrorists willing to attack.
More than a dozen attack plans known
Documents recently published by the US Department of Defense show that the US secret services are said to have information that ISPK’s terror planners are actively promoting so-called “external operations”, i.e. attacks abroad. According to one of the documents from February, more than a dozen such plans have become known so far.
The US services are said to have learned that the ISPK was apparently planning to carry out a suicide attack during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Other planned attacks are said to have targeted Dutch and Swedish diplomatic facilities in Russia, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan in response to right-wing extremists burning the Koran in the two countries.
Also drone strikes considered
In addition, ISPK members are said to have intensively discussed the possibility of bomb attacks using drones equipped with explosives. To this end, the Islamists are said to have already contacted a person in Ukraine, where civilian drones have been converted into armed flying objects and used with great success for some time.
The terrorist network is also said to have contacted a sympathizer in Great Britain in the summer of last year who claimed to have skills in the fields of aeronautical engineering and chemistry. The IS contacts are said to have encouraged the Islamists to make their knowledge available via online communication instead of making the risky trip to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Young people should carry out assassinations in Germany
In the case of the two underage Islamists from Bremerhaven and Iserlohn, the ISPK instructors are said to have advised against traveling to the conflict area. Instead, the two young people are said to have been called upon to carry out assassinations against “infidels” in Germany.
It is not yet certain whether the charges against the Islamists in Hamburg will be admitted. They are still in custody – the young people are said not to have moved away from their jihadist attitudes even in prison. The boy from Bremerhaven is said to have painted an IS flag and written an Islamist battle song. The suspect from Iserlohn, in turn, is said to have continued to express radical Islamic ideas during visits to prison.