Following the FBI’s arrest of an Afghan man in Oklahoma who was allegedly planning a shooting on election day for the Islamic State, the group has resurfaced in what has become a highly turbulent news cycle leading up to the November elections.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old from Oklahoma City, confessed to investigators that he and a co-conspirator anticipated dying as martyrs for IS while attacking election day crowds, as outlined in the charging documents.
In recent weeks, warnings regarding attacks sponsored or inspired by Islamic State in the West have increased significantly.
Islamic State threats
In a statement regarding the Tawhedi case, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized the ongoing necessity to address the persistent threat that IS and its supporters pose to national security. Meanwhile, Ken McCallum, the director of MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence agency, acknowledged the considerable challenges his organization faces in managing the resurgence of the terrorist group.
Despite these warnings from top officials, public perception largely persists that the Islamic State has been defeated or has vanished entirely.
Experts indicate that, before and after Tawhedi’s arrest, there has been notable activity within IS circles. On chat forums and encrypted messaging platforms, both supporters and operatives have increasingly discussed plans for attacks in the West and within the U.S.
Different factions of Islamic State
The discussions are primarily driven by IS-Khorasan (IS-K), the Afghanistan-based faction responsible for a deadly attack in Moscow that resulted in 145 fatalities in March. The term Khorasan refers to an ancient region that encompasses parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and neighboring countries.
IS-K has rapidly become the most active international wing of the terrorist organization, executing the lethal plot in Russia and another in Iran shortly before that. Following Tawhedi’s arrest, U.S. officials later confirmed that an IS-K operative was allegedly directing the Oklahoma plot.
In a propaganda poster released in September, IS-K threatened American targets, placing them at the top of its list.
ISIS recruitment
While Islamic State-K has capitalized on the chaos in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover in the summer of 2021, it has also ramped up recruitment efforts following the attacks on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli military operations.
The recruitment strategy targets young men in the West who find it difficult to travel abroad. A relative of Tawhedi, an Afghan national who resettled in the U.S. after the fall of Kabul, has also been charged in France for a similar conspiracy.
In a spring edition of Voice of Khurasan, its English-language propaganda magazine, Islamic State-K encourages individuals to reach out to the organization through encrypted communications and offers covert recruitment from Western locations.
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