Two Islamic State recruits, one with British passport, seized by Taliban when they tried to slip into Afghanistan

Even the Taliban is protecting its borders, while jihadists have for a considerable period infiltrated refugee streams into the European Union and the the Western world at large. It’s the perfect opportunity for them.

The irony is telling: “two suspected Islamic State recruits, one of them carrying a British passport, were seized by the Taliban when they tried to slip into Afghanistan last autumn through its northern border.”

“One of the reasons people are heading to Afghanistan is simply that there is nowhere else to go. It is perhaps the most likely place for aspiring jihadists who want to see combat,” said Ashley Jackson, an expert in armed groups in Afghanistan and the author of Negotiating Survival.

There is actually other places for them to go. Many jihadi migrants are continuing their jihad throughout the West, as irresponsible leaders have opened their doors to unvetted migrants. A million Afghan refugees, for example, are on the way to Canada, and the UK doesn’t even require a passport from them. A jihadi in the UK could opt to stay home and wage jihad there.

“Two suspected British Islamic State recruits seized by Taliban at border,” by Emma Graham-Harrison, Guardian, February 8, 2022:

Two suspected Islamic State recruits, one of them carrying a British passport, were seized by the Taliban when they tried to slip into Afghanistan last autumn through its northern border, the Guardian can reveal.

The men, who were carrying more than £10,000 in cash, military fatigues and night-vision goggles in their bags, were arrested after a tipoff from Uzbekistan, according to a Taliban source with knowledge of the operation.

“There was one passport from England and one from another country in Europe,” said the source. He discussed the men’s capture at the border crossing of Hairatan on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to journalists.

An Uzbek source said both men were using British passports when they flew into the Uzbek capital, Tashkent – it is not clear whether one also had a European passport that he used at the Afghan border, or whether the Taliban source was confused – and both had Afghan heritage.

Their interception was a stark reminder that while the west was able to end its war in Afghanistan by withdrawing troops, there is no such simple resolution to the security threat posed by international terror groups that shelter inside its borders.

Hundreds of Britons went to live under Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but this is the first time UK citizens have been intercepted allegedly trying to join the group in Afghanistan, and the first reported case of attempted international recruitment to IS since the Taliban took power in the country.

Two French citizens are reported to have travelled from central Asia to join Islamic State in Afghanistan several years ago, and another was intercepted in 2017 by Tajik authorities, tried and jailed for five years.

The Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan – known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), after a historic name for the region – is well funded and resilient.

It has carried out multiple large-scale suicide attacks in Kabul and other big cities since the Taliban took control of the country last year, and now has a presence in every province in Afghanistan, a senior UN official said in November.

ISK is one of the few options left for westerners drawn to violent extremism in the name of Islam now that the Syrian civil war has largely been reduced to a bloody stalemate in a corner of the country.

“One of the reasons people are heading to Afghanistan is simply that there is nowhere else to go. It is perhaps the most likely place for aspiring jihadists who want to see combat,” said Ashley Jackson, an expert in armed groups in Afghanistan and the author of Negotiating Survival, about civilian relations with the Taliban insurgency….