Antonio Giustozzi - The Islamic State in Khorasan: Afghanistan, Pakistan and the New Central Asian Jihad

HURST & COMPANY, LONDON

First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by

C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,

41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL

Antonio Giustozzi, 2018

All rights reserved.

The right of Antonio Giustozzi to be identified as the author of this publication is asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 9781787380950

This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable and managed sources.

www.hurstpublishers.com

This book is the result of a research project carried out with the Royal United Service Institute and funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation. The latter deserves special thanks, since the book would have been impossible to produce without its generous contribution. The book also benefits from work done while researching articles for Janes, from small research projects done on occasion and from previous projects on the Afghan Taliban and the Central Asian jihadists. The author thanks all those involved and in particular Raffaello Pantucci (RUSI) and Emily Winterbotham (RUSI), who commented the original text and provided very useful advice. The author also wishes to thank Michael Dwyer, Sebastian Ballard, Prerana Patel, Jack McGinn and everybody else at Hurst, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism of the original manuscript.

The author also wishes to thank all those who contributed to the development of his ideas and views on the subject in meetings, workshops and conferences. They are far too many to be mentioned here individually.

Special thanks go to the researchers, who carried out the bulk of the interviews in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other locations. They have to remain anonymous for security reasons, but their efforts were essential to the research project. The author assumes all responsibility for the analysis contained in this text, of course.

Al-Nusra: shorthand for Jabhat Al-Nusra (The Support Front), a AQ-affiliated insurgent group in the Syrian civil war (2011). Renamed Fatah as-Sham in 2016 and merged into Tahrir as-Sham in 2017.

Al-Qaida (AQ): The Base, the group founded by Osama Bin Laden to launch his global jihad.

Ansar ul Khilafat Wal Jihad: Partisans of the Caliphate and of Jihad, a small jihadist group in Pakistan, which joined the TKP (see below).

Atiqullah Mahaz: a Taliban front linked to the Peshawar Shura and operating mainly in eastern Afghanistan.

Azizullah Haqqani Group: formed by sympathisers of IS in Waziristan, then became one of the component groups of IS-K.

Dadullah Mahaz: a Taliban front linked to the Quetta Shura and operating mainly in southern Afghanistan.

Dost Mohammad Mahaz: a Taliban front linked to the Peshawar Shura and operating mainly in eastern Afghanistan.

Fatah as-Sham: Conquest of the Levant, see Al-Nusra.

Gansu Hui Group: created within IS to gather Chinese Muslims in a single group. Mostly present in Afghanistan and Syria/Iraq, with perhaps some presence in China as well.

Haji Atiqullahs Salafi Group: an Afghan Salafi group operating in Kunar and not militarily active, which ended up supporting IS-K.

Haqqani network: one of the main Taliban networks, de facto coinciding with the Miran Shah Shura. Led by Serajuddin Haqqani.

Harakat-e Ansar-e Iran: Movement of the Partisans of Iran, a Baluchi jihadist insurgent organisation in Iran.

Harakat Islami Sistan: Islamic Movement of Sistan, a Baluchi jihadist insurgent organisation in Iran.

Harakat Khilafat Baluch: Baluchi Movement for the Caliphate, a Baluchi jihadist insurgent organisation in Iran and Pakistan, with a distinct branch for each country.

Hassan Khan Baluch group: an armed group of smugglers operating across the Iranian-Pakistani border.

Hizb-i Islami: Islamic Party, one of the main branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Afghanistan. Led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Hizb-ut Tahrir: Liberation Party, radical Islamic group advocating the re-establishment of the Caliphate, usually non-violent.

Islamic Movement of Tajikistan: Harakati Islamii Tajikistan