For more than two years, a resilient Islamic State (IS) militant cell in northern Afghanistan has grown amid tough fighting against its Taliban enemies and crumbling government authority.
Since its emergence in Jawzjan, a rural province bordering Turkmenistan and in close proximity to Uzbekistan, the IS presence has grown from hideouts in remote villages. With estimated hundreds of fighters, the group now controls two of Jawzjan’s 11 districts.
It has attracted former members of the Afghan Taliban to join hands with the Central Asian remnants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Alarmingly, its apparent success now appears to be attracting global jihadists -- many fleeing the end of IS control over large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
This turns the IS enclave in Jawzjan into a security threat for Washington and its Western allies while undermining the security of Afghanistan and its Central Asian neighbors.
To discuss the issue, Barmak Pazhwak, a senior Afghanistan analyst at the United States Institute of Peace, joined our moderator and RFE/RL Media Manager Muhammad Tahir in Washington. Caitlin Forrest, an operations manager at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, joined the discussion from the same city. I joined the discussion from Prague.
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