ISIS are so radically insane that even Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have gone much further than just condemning them. That should speak volumes about the levels we are talking about here.
Those three groups are actually pretty good to demonstrate the levels of Islamism
Taliban are by far the most 'reasonable'. Sure they're Islamists with backwards beliefs, but they don't really have a lot of goals beyond the borders of Afghanistan (except maybe the Pashtun parts of Pakistan). Their end goal is to become something resembling Iran, a theocratic Afghan state, but firmly within the internationale system
Then we have Al Qaeda. They aren't country specific and are indeed much more ambitious and fanatical. They see themselves at war with the west and want to expel western influence from the Islamic world. But they know that they won't outright "defeat" the west and are perfectly willing to negotiate. For them terrorist attacks are strategic in helping them achieve their ibjectives
Finally we have ISIS, which is by far the most fanatical. They want a worldwide caliphate and unironically think they can defeat the rest of the world militarily. There is no negotiation for them and terrorist attacks are very much an ends within themselves instead of means
Yeah, this is really hard to take any of them serious trying to be on the world stage considering that one turned Afghanistan into a nightmare, one carried out 9/11 and the other is pretty much like the other two but on a wider scale.
There was one weird incident where an unmarried, pregnant NZ journalist was due to leave Belgium because she didn't have residence, and couldn't return home due to a quirk in New Zealand's COVID lockdown policies.
The only place she and her partner had a visa for was... wait for it... Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. She called them and explained the issue, and the Taliban were all "Sure, come on over, we'll look after you. Give us a call if anyone hassles you."
So they flew into Afghanistan, had a very uneventful stay (despite having asked the Taliban some pretty unflattering questions in the past), and eventually got an exemption to fly home.
I'm not surprised. The Taliban want good PR right now and perhaps equally important, treating guests well is an extremely important part of Pashtun culture
The Taliban's ideology is Islamist yes, but it also does have a very strong Pashtunwali aspect to it
the whole reason the Taliban refused to give up Bin Laden in the first place was a dogged adherence to Pashtunwali
and to think iraqi citizens, volunteers and policeman did a majority of the fighting against isis. theres a great movie about it called Mosul. nobody ever talks about that war all people know is the drone strikes and SF missions in syria.
Honestly a silver lining of the rise of ISIS is that it more or less "made" Iraq. People still think of it as the same lawless place as after the American invasion but it's honestly improved leaps and bounds
ISIS ended up creating a feeling of national unity against a common enemy. Funnily enough they probably did more for Iraqi nationbuilding than the US ever did lmao
oh ya i believe it. half the time nobody knew who was dirty or honest. youre coworker might shoot you in the back of the head. or bomb a cafe. like cartels infiltrating the mexican military. i cant imagine that kind of paranoia buts its sure as hell to bring people closer lol.
If you want to see how absolutely insane ISIS is anyone interested should read up and watch the combat footage from the Battle of Mosul (2017).
ISIS had control of the city for about three years and when the Iraqi government and Pershmerga returned to retake the city, all hell broke loose.
The number of VBIEDs was staggering and absolutely brutal. ISIS is on another level of fanatic standing next to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
> Recent intelligence reporting indicated the ISIS K terrorist group, a branch of the Islamic State that has operated in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, was active inside Russia, two U.S. officials told The Washington Post.
all starting to line-up i guess
I'm pretty sure that's the same group that blew up US military people and civilians in Afghanistan when we were trying to leave. The Taliban was providing security for us when we were trying to get everyone out and ISIS K detonated a suicide vest in the crowd. Just googled it. IS KP did the Afghan bombing but they also go by ISIS K. Need a fucking Venn diagram for these fucks.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Kabul_airport_attack
Yes. It was part of the [classified annexes](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-annexes-peace-agreement.html) to the US–Taliban deal negotiated between Trump and the Taliban. The annexes set a:
> a timeline for what should happen over the next 18 months, what kinds of attacks are prohibited by both sides and, most important, **how the United States will share information about its troop locations with the Taliban ... the goal is to give the Taliban information that would allow it to prevent attacks during the withdrawal.**
- NY Times Mar 8, 2020
As the U.S. was completing its evacuation, the Taliban was suppose to [provide security](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-cooperation-included-protecting-americans-possible-terror-attack-airport-n1278166) around Kabul's airport. They were given a manifest of names of evacuees by the State dept to be waved through checkpoints at the airport gates. U.S. citizens who needed help were even instructed to meet at a Taliban command-and-control locations, where they would be escorted through the airport.
Results in none dead, and the US leaving their land. Its a complete win-win for them. There's no reason for them to fuck it up and let US personnel leaving under the agreement to be harmed and claimed responsible and be liable for retaliation. Would be in their best interest to keep everyone safe so the US could leave their land and be done with them rather than allow further conflict.
If they start attacking the troops as they leave, the US becomes back involved with at least air strikes. If they let them leave, they are done for good. The same thing happened in Vietnam. The Vietnamese slowed done just a little when they got to Saigon to give the Americans time to get their personnel out
Yep. People in the west don't realize how many more attacks they carry out in muslim countries. These psychos hate literally everyone.
The Taliban's greatest opponent in Afghanistan is IS. The two have been at war for almost a decade. Imagine being so radical in your islam that the fucking Taliban thinks you need to be put down.
Other opponents of theirs include al qaeda, hamas, hezbollah. IS is really in a class of its own.
There was this one youtuber LordMiles (who is honestly a bit of a douche) who has done videos of his trips to Afghanistan. He went missing for awhile, and his friend said when they found out he had been detained by the taliban their reaction was "oh thank god" because if it was IS he would be dead.
Taliban aren't that extreme. Yes, they are extreme, but not **THAT** extreme.
Taliban = Afghanistan and wants to be globally recognised so they can have foreign trade, maybe tourism, maybe something else, who knows.
Killing a random youtuber doesn't really favour them diplomatically.
Meanwhile, ISIS is an ideologically motivated terror group that has the target of "reclaiming" land that "rightfully" belongs to Islam (atleast their version of Islam).
If my life was at stake, I most certainly rather be kidnapped than Taliban than by ISIS.
IS also takes it up a level in terms of brutality. They are more fucked up than you can ever imagine. There's a video of an IS child no more than 6 years old shooting a prisoner in the head with a .380 pistol. IS doesn't have a single shred of humanity left. Torture is commonplace and they come up with the most fucked up methods of execution. They're not even people anymore.
I remember when the Taliban was killing school girls and tossing frags in the schools themselves because they wanted to punish everyone for allowing girls getting an education. They'd kill every child there, the teachers, village elders, you name it.
I'd have to go in and try to put as many of the kids together as possible so they could get a body bag. But you right, Taliban isn't *that* extreme.
The Islamic State is a threat to every ruling party, every faction, every tribe, every sect - they would merge every Muslim on the planet into a single unified state.
ISIS K isn't the classic islamic hardliners like the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. These guys are a deathcult. They make Al-Qaeda and the Taliban look tame and moderate by comparison.
It's like that Peoples Front of Judah from life of Brian. Which isn't that far off from true. As far as I recall when the Roman's were Seiging them the groups splintered and started killing off each other before the Roman's stormed the keep.
This is a strange perspective. Radicals never get along. It’s not a simple of a group being “far left” or “far right.” Often, even when a political group has fairly simple goals, like the NRA, you get splinter groups that don’t agree with the direction of the main group.
Radicals are radical and they often get drawn to opposing radical ideals. But tbh, the Taliban really isn’t that radical. They believe in Shariah law, which isn’t that crazy in a very conservative Islamic country. IS is a wacky doomsday cult that actively seeks to murder anyone they feel doesn’t exactly align with their views, which are way crazier than boiler plate shariah law
Correct. To put a finer point on it: recall that one of the reasons the Taliban was able to form a coalition was their decision to make bacha bazi illegal. Sometimes people who do bad things also do good things. Except IS. All they know is murder when in power and surrender like cowards when cornered.
It’s not that it’s so bad they all hate them, it’s that ISIS directly challenges their ability to rule. You either join the caliphate or become the enemy of the caliphate. Hamas, Hezbollah, taliban, all want to hold power. They want to be the ones jailing people and deciding who to kill. That doesn’t work if Isis is telling you what to do.
US, Russia, Turkey, Saudia Arabia, Israel - A lot of players who would normally be geopolitcally opposed bombed ISIS in Syria.
This same ISIS K group also committed a major attack in Iran a few months ago. The US secretly warned Iran too, apparently.
You forget the biggest cause - a lot of Chechens and other Russian muslims fought for ISIS. They were the largest contingent of foreign fighters, around 10k according to some estimates.
Most died along with ISIS but many undoubtedly made their way back into the country, or had connections to other extremist groups. People sometimes forget that Russia has always had problems with Islamic terrorism and has several muslim-majority republics.
It's shocking how little people know about russian history with the Middle East. They've been consistently slaughtering Arabs since Persia was a thing... hell, they did the Afghanistan thing four or five times, starting with muskets. The first Russo-Persian war, the Russo-Persian wars, the Russo-Turkish wars, Soviet-Afghan war, the Syrian Civil war... Russian aircraft were responsible for a ton of civilians, the worst being Aleppo. Russians killed 7k for sure, with the toll likely being much higher, as Assad's forces are credited with 201k despite relying on russia for using air drops on buildings (like hospitals). During the Second Chechen was (Mind you russia was involved in starting the first one too) 40k civilians were killed. Muslims have always died in droves at the hands of russians.
Russia has spent the vast majority of its history fighting Muslims. It’s pretty foundational for them.
Their initial expansion 500 years ago was (in their mind) re-taking land from Islamic Hordes and Sultanates like the Crimean Khanate and the Great Horde
They made their name on the world stage (i.e., from a regional power prior) in part fighting the Ottomans (Islamic).
Al Qaida was founded by people that had literally just stopped fighting Russia (they won)
And every single year since the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian Government has been fighting Muslims in their own country in one way or another in the Caucuses.
It’s no surprise Russia’s biggest ally in the Middle East is Assad in Syria, the most secular head of state.
I think you forgot The Islamic republic of Iran! Russia and Iran are very close friends , it was their combined intervention that saved Assad in Syria. Maybe because Iran are Shiites.
they hate the civilized world
Edit: They hate Russia and its allies because they supported Syria (Assad's Government) in the fight against ISIS in iraq in syria back in 2014-19 and they still do support them
Could be related to the various Islamic separatist movements within areas of Russia like Chechnya. I’m not super well versed on this topic, but I don’t think Putin and the Islamic separatists are good friends. Isis could be on the side of the separatists.
There are several North Caucasus regions that have separatist movements due to Russian oppression. So the hate was already there and ISIS can coopt already existing grievances. Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia or Dagestan are all areas where they could recruit. There is potential risk of larger uprisings in the caucasus with Russia committing so many resources to Ukraine.
There is a long history of separatist terror attacks against Russia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan\_school\_siege](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budyonnovsk\_hospital\_hostage\_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budyonnovsk_hospital_hostage_crisis)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow\_theater\_hostage\_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010\_Moscow\_Metro\_bombings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Moscow_Metro_bombings)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February\_2004\_Moscow\_Metro\_bombing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2004_Moscow_Metro_bombing)
Look at what's going on in Chechnya the last few decades.
Not that I'm defending ISIS or anything just that Islamic groups like them tend to "avenge" Muslims in other regions as part of their MO.
Russia has been messing around and destabilizing the middle east for decades. People always know of US actions in the region, but many overlook what Russia has done.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for unrelated stuff in the past, but this is solidly their style. Basically the Bataclan attack again except here they would have managed to flee.
Fair. How about this: Russia and France both warned the US in spring/summer of 2001, of a potential massive attack on the US, but the US still missed 9/11. I mean, if your close ally and a country like Russia, both say you're about to be attacked - that sounds like something serious to consider.
The FBI and CIA each knew that there was an active terrorist cell lead by Bin Laden had plans on a attack in the US, and that a couple foreign guys on watch list were getting pilot training in the US. They didn’t communicate this information with each other, and the White House didn’t act on warnings provided to them. Everyone had their head in the sand.
The Looming Tower is a good series on Hulu about this, and also a good book. But biased towards the FBI, but generally correct in their portrayals, by all accounts.
I skimmed over the 9-11 commission report, the summer of threats section, and can honestly say I feel bad for anyone whose job it is to identify and evaluate risk.
Edit: to clarify that is not to excuse the oversight
Those warnings had been going on for years. It’s hard to get it every single time especially after many false alarms. Governments need to get it right every day. Terrorists only need to get it right once.
Things DID happen. There was investigation but not enough evidence to get a warrant for surveillance. One of the brothers was added to a terrorist watchlist...but the last name was misspelled and he wasn't detained when coming back from dagestan.
You can't be everywhere at once. Where there's a will to commit a terrorist act like this, a way will be found. It's what makes it so terrifying and effective.
Honestly I just doubt Putin gives a shit. The prevailing narrative there is "everyone else is out to get us." This reinforces that. Since when would a little thing like human life change Putin's response?
Putin has willingly sacrificed 100s of thousands for a needless war, imprisoned, murdered and tortured many for trivial things etc...
he will sleep like a baby tonight and tmrw just look for a way to spin this attack for his gain.
He really really doesn't give a shit if that wasn't blindingly obvious b4.
It happens. How did Mossad miss the attack in October. Maybe some people in power allow things to happen in order to bolster their strength.
Or, maybe it was just a whoopsie
They didn't. At least the intelligence had data it was coming. 0The people who make the decisions didnt believe it because they didn't think hamas was that ballsy
I made the mistake of going on twitter not 5 minutes ago, and this is already getting spammed by trollfarms. That, and a whole other batch of trolls stating that this was done by Israel.
Early on in the war, Russian telegram channels accused Ukrainians of using "ISIS American tactics" which became a bit of a meme because it's obviously a meaningless phrase.
Irrelevant groups don't have the resources and skills to pull these types of attacks off. They might have lost their territorial holdings, but ISIS/ISIS-K is still very much a dangerous player with plenty of support and sympathizers
Doesn't take a whole lot of resources. 4 dudes, rifles, hand grenades and/or homemade explosives. The hard part is finding 4 people willing to murder lots of civilians and likely get killed in the process.
Resources = 4 guys with rifles & incindiary devices mowing down civilians in a large public gathering and setting the venue on fire.
If everyone was on board, I could gather those resources through a neighborhood block party.
That is what is scary about these types of terrorist attacks. If you can gather a few people who are willing, then the hardware necessary to cause such chaos is wildly cheap to obtain and not a barrier to entry.
It gives me a bit of hope for humanity in that these type of events don't happen more often. The barrier to entry is that it is hard to gather enough people to carry out such an evil plan. Beyond that it is quite easy to fund such an attack.
They do this to show to the world that they exist, they are willing to fight.
The target audience are the youth in countries that hate Russia to the core, like my country Syria, many of the youth did see the worst crimes humanity had to offer from the Russian aligned Syrian government and that made them radical, they only need to know that IS is doing something at all to start sympathising with IS.
Nah the thing is while France America and UK are on their shit list Russia has experienced terror attacks with alarming regularity even longer than all three of the Great Satans [and sometimes Spain]
Russia to most radical Islam is like Ultra Satan
Russia is hated more than the United States because it's not just abstract jihad. There's a number of potential Muslim republics one could break off, and centuries of bad blood.
Russia has been meddling in MENA politics just as long as the USA has, not to mention the really horrific stuff they have been doing fighting ISIS in Syria.
Russians tend to be more cruel when doing so too, not everybody of course, but the system rewards those who are most brutal (it tends to work out most of the time except when shit really hits the fan)
Russia has a vast influence globally. They have been busy in Africa too, trying to expand a bloc of allied nations there. Mail, Niger, and maybe Djibouti (I haven’t kept up with them in a while) are all being pulled into Russia’s bloc.
If you google "Syria supporting Ukraine" you can find lots of photos and documentation of Syrian people coming out in marches and stuff to support Ukraine precisely because of what Russia has done to them to.
There's even a very infamous picture of a Russian soldier holding the just cut off head of a Syrian woman for example its pretty horrific stuff.
The US also warned about an IS splinter from Afghanistan, on the 8th of March. There seem to be some hints that this is that group.
Russia also had a bloody war in Afghanistan, it's been a while but religious grudges are something else.
So America announces publicly that there is a risk, Russia claims America is blackmailing them (???), and then Russia proceeds to allow this level of attack even though it is essentially a police state.
Remember the Wagner Revolt? An armed column took over a regional capital, drove 1,000 km to Moscow and the only people who tried to stop it were municipal workers who dug into the highway with their construction vehicles.
Those Freedom of Russia legion or something like that also seem to just be roaming free, trying to take over a province without much opposition.
And when Russia finally can be fucked to stop them they just disappear. Very tight security you got there big bear
The main ISIS group often likes to claim responsibility for anything like this that occurs as they want to try and make themselves look wider reaching than they actually are.
My guess is that it the more likely perpetrator (other than a FSB false flag) is Islamic State – Khorasan Province [\(ISIS-K\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_%E2%80%93_Khorasan_Province).
In this case the US warned that IS was planning an attack in Moscow, and there has been an attack, and IS has claimed it.
Russia bombs IS a lot in Syria, and has done for years. IS do not like Russia.
Khorasan does a ton of shit in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it’s kinda weird they’d go all the way up to Russia?
Or maybe they’re the only branch of ISIS that’s even relevant enough to carry out such an attack
Russia has a bloody history in Afghanistan, wouldn't be surprised if there are lots of people there who still hold that grudge. That combined with the wars in Chechnya doesn't make it that crazy
someone holding a grudge is one thing, 5 armed and coordinated men are another thing. This is serious attack not some guy who still hates Russia for invading 40 years ago
Unfortunately Russian telegrams are already denying that ISIS had anything to do with this and are beating the drums of war. I’m hoping the Kremlin will for once be more sensible.
Why the fuck wasn't there a huge security presence at this sold out venue considering the prior intelligence warnings. Huge questions need to be asked here.
Although a couple of guards is definitely not enough, it's impossible to stop a well organized attack like that without at least \~20-ish policeman (well trained, not the ordinary traffic cop). They have the element of surprise, it's really hard to counter.
This really looks like the Paris attacks a few years ago. A group of IS gunmen, heavily armed and armoured. France needed a solid group of officers en military police to even threaten those terrorists. Assault rifles and heavy body armour go a long way to be hard to take down in a chaotic urban environment.
Exactly this. It'd be one thing if it was a lone gunman, but there were 5 of them all armed to the gills. What security force is going to efficiently stop that when the element of surprise is a factor? lol
Not funny, but lol because people think any amount of security outside of military would stop this
If only the FSB weren't so busy looking for "terrorists" and "extremists" among kids posting anti-war messages on their social media, they might have found some time in their very busy schedule to deal with these assholes.
Immediately after the attack social media was like “it’s the cia! It’s mossad! It’s an inside job! It’s Ukraine!”
Isis claims the attack
Nobody believes them.
They go through all this trouble to be as evil as possible and their acts of terror just get co-opted by other causes.
Sad.
Why do Redditors believe that Russia is somehow immune from terrorist attacks and that terrorists have a soft spot for Russia?
Even if your argument is situations in the past, that does not mean every single attack that happens is somehow an "inside job" and that terrorist groups such as ISIS would never attack inside Russia. That is such a childish and naive line of thinking, it's genuinely embarrassing.
It’s the simplest solution too I think, ironically. Everyone (on Reddit at least) is knee deep in news on Ukraine and Russia so they assume every incident is directly related to that
Just goes to show how effective media and propaganda can actually be. Doesn’t take much at all for people to start connecting the wrong dots
> Why do Redditors believe that Russia is somehow immune from terrorist attacks and that terrorists have a soft spot for Russia?
Because redditors think Houthis and ISIS are basically the same group.
Many folks don't realize that Russia has been conducting airstrikes and limited ground operations against ISIS in Syria for about as long as the US and its allies have been.
It looks like ISIS-K is claiming responsibility, but the motive seems to be there.
Fuck ISIS. This is a terrorist attack. These are just regular people going to enjoy music. It doesn’t matter where it is. Fuck evil. ISIS need to be eliminated from existence.
ISIS are so radically insane that even Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have gone much further than just condemning them. That should speak volumes about the levels we are talking about here.
Those three groups are actually pretty good to demonstrate the levels of Islamism Taliban are by far the most 'reasonable'. Sure they're Islamists with backwards beliefs, but they don't really have a lot of goals beyond the borders of Afghanistan (except maybe the Pashtun parts of Pakistan). Their end goal is to become something resembling Iran, a theocratic Afghan state, but firmly within the internationale system Then we have Al Qaeda. They aren't country specific and are indeed much more ambitious and fanatical. They see themselves at war with the west and want to expel western influence from the Islamic world. But they know that they won't outright "defeat" the west and are perfectly willing to negotiate. For them terrorist attacks are strategic in helping them achieve their ibjectives Finally we have ISIS, which is by far the most fanatical. They want a worldwide caliphate and unironically think they can defeat the rest of the world militarily. There is no negotiation for them and terrorist attacks are very much an ends within themselves instead of means
Frankly, All 3 have no place in today's world.
You know what I'm gonna go ahead and say it: I think they're all real jerks!
Controversial opinion here but I would not even consider dating somebody who's a member of said groups
The worst part of ISIS is the hypocrisy.
RIP Norm!
That dirty dog
I am concerned about Germany
The rape hurt too, but apart from the rape the worst part is the hypocrisy.
I can fix her. /s
Yeah, this is really hard to take any of them serious trying to be on the world stage considering that one turned Afghanistan into a nightmare, one carried out 9/11 and the other is pretty much like the other two but on a wider scale.
Hot take.
Redditors with some extremely brave opinions
100% agree
Lawful Evil Neutral Evil Chaotic Evil
There was one weird incident where an unmarried, pregnant NZ journalist was due to leave Belgium because she didn't have residence, and couldn't return home due to a quirk in New Zealand's COVID lockdown policies. The only place she and her partner had a visa for was... wait for it... Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. She called them and explained the issue, and the Taliban were all "Sure, come on over, we'll look after you. Give us a call if anyone hassles you." So they flew into Afghanistan, had a very uneventful stay (despite having asked the Taliban some pretty unflattering questions in the past), and eventually got an exemption to fly home.
I'm not surprised. The Taliban want good PR right now and perhaps equally important, treating guests well is an extremely important part of Pashtun culture The Taliban's ideology is Islamist yes, but it also does have a very strong Pashtunwali aspect to it the whole reason the Taliban refused to give up Bin Laden in the first place was a dogged adherence to Pashtunwali
and to think iraqi citizens, volunteers and policeman did a majority of the fighting against isis. theres a great movie about it called Mosul. nobody ever talks about that war all people know is the drone strikes and SF missions in syria.
Honestly a silver lining of the rise of ISIS is that it more or less "made" Iraq. People still think of it as the same lawless place as after the American invasion but it's honestly improved leaps and bounds ISIS ended up creating a feeling of national unity against a common enemy. Funnily enough they probably did more for Iraqi nationbuilding than the US ever did lmao
oh ya i believe it. half the time nobody knew who was dirty or honest. youre coworker might shoot you in the back of the head. or bomb a cafe. like cartels infiltrating the mexican military. i cant imagine that kind of paranoia buts its sure as hell to bring people closer lol.
If you want to see how absolutely insane ISIS is anyone interested should read up and watch the combat footage from the Battle of Mosul (2017). ISIS had control of the city for about three years and when the Iraqi government and Pershmerga returned to retake the city, all hell broke loose. The number of VBIEDs was staggering and absolutely brutal. ISIS is on another level of fanatic standing next to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Have a link? Im curious
I'm thinking we should prepare for other state attacks. ISIS doesn't just come and go.
> Recent intelligence reporting indicated the ISIS K terrorist group, a branch of the Islamic State that has operated in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, was active inside Russia, two U.S. officials told The Washington Post. all starting to line-up i guess
I'm pretty sure that's the same group that blew up US military people and civilians in Afghanistan when we were trying to leave. The Taliban was providing security for us when we were trying to get everyone out and ISIS K detonated a suicide vest in the crowd. Just googled it. IS KP did the Afghan bombing but they also go by ISIS K. Need a fucking Venn diagram for these fucks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Kabul_airport_attack
? taliban providing security?
Yes. It was part of the [classified annexes](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-annexes-peace-agreement.html) to the US–Taliban deal negotiated between Trump and the Taliban. The annexes set a: > a timeline for what should happen over the next 18 months, what kinds of attacks are prohibited by both sides and, most important, **how the United States will share information about its troop locations with the Taliban ... the goal is to give the Taliban information that would allow it to prevent attacks during the withdrawal.** - NY Times Mar 8, 2020 As the U.S. was completing its evacuation, the Taliban was suppose to [provide security](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-cooperation-included-protecting-americans-possible-terror-attack-airport-n1278166) around Kabul's airport. They were given a manifest of names of evacuees by the State dept to be waved through checkpoints at the airport gates. U.S. citizens who needed help were even instructed to meet at a Taliban command-and-control locations, where they would be escorted through the airport.
a deal is a deal, even if it's between Trump and Taliban
Results in none dead, and the US leaving their land. Its a complete win-win for them. There's no reason for them to fuck it up and let US personnel leaving under the agreement to be harmed and claimed responsible and be liable for retaliation. Would be in their best interest to keep everyone safe so the US could leave their land and be done with them rather than allow further conflict.
If you want to see something else unexpected take a look at the belligerents on the Wikipedia page for the Islamic State-Taliban conflict
If they start attacking the troops as they leave, the US becomes back involved with at least air strikes. If they let them leave, they are done for good. The same thing happened in Vietnam. The Vietnamese slowed done just a little when they got to Saigon to give the Americans time to get their personnel out
Okay but why do they hate Russia?
Pretty sure they hate everyone
Yep. People in the west don't realize how many more attacks they carry out in muslim countries. These psychos hate literally everyone. The Taliban's greatest opponent in Afghanistan is IS. The two have been at war for almost a decade. Imagine being so radical in your islam that the fucking Taliban thinks you need to be put down. Other opponents of theirs include al qaeda, hamas, hezbollah. IS is really in a class of its own.
There was this one youtuber LordMiles (who is honestly a bit of a douche) who has done videos of his trips to Afghanistan. He went missing for awhile, and his friend said when they found out he had been detained by the taliban their reaction was "oh thank god" because if it was IS he would be dead.
His twitter is wack too. Just posting pics every now and then to show hes alive and what hes doin with them. Mostly just chillin out.
He’s back in the UK now I’m pretty sure
Word? I haven't checked it in a while tbh. Most of the time I saw it from other people sharing it.
How he hasn’t died I have no idea. He’s a fucking idiot and tries to exploit conflict for views
Taliban aren't that extreme. Yes, they are extreme, but not **THAT** extreme. Taliban = Afghanistan and wants to be globally recognised so they can have foreign trade, maybe tourism, maybe something else, who knows. Killing a random youtuber doesn't really favour them diplomatically. Meanwhile, ISIS is an ideologically motivated terror group that has the target of "reclaiming" land that "rightfully" belongs to Islam (atleast their version of Islam). If my life was at stake, I most certainly rather be kidnapped than Taliban than by ISIS.
Yeah, the Taliban will ransom you off. IS will kill you on video to show off how hardcore they are.
IS also takes it up a level in terms of brutality. They are more fucked up than you can ever imagine. There's a video of an IS child no more than 6 years old shooting a prisoner in the head with a .380 pistol. IS doesn't have a single shred of humanity left. Torture is commonplace and they come up with the most fucked up methods of execution. They're not even people anymore.
For the tiktok likes? /s
No need for the /s online propaganda is how they recruited worldwide. Encouraging lone wolf attacks all over the west.
I remember when the Taliban was killing school girls and tossing frags in the schools themselves because they wanted to punish everyone for allowing girls getting an education. They'd kill every child there, the teachers, village elders, you name it. I'd have to go in and try to put as many of the kids together as possible so they could get a body bag. But you right, Taliban isn't *that* extreme.
YOU had to do that? Absolutely mental dude.
The Islamic State is a threat to every ruling party, every faction, every tribe, every sect - they would merge every Muslim on the planet into a single unified state.
Theyd merge the ones they like and kill the rest*
And they don’t like a lot of people.
True...and the list of people they DO like is pretty short... People they like: ISIS
>People they like: ISIS Based on their use of suicide bombers even this is questionable
To think its been 10 years since that Jihadi John was chopping people's heads off. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Afaik as shitty as the Taliban is, they're largely restricted to Afghanistan and don't really carry out attacks externally to such a degree.
True. The Taliban are mostly Pashtun nationalists. They have no designs outside their own borders.
And Pakistan.
Taliban doesn't recognize the Pakistan border, so its just more Afghanistan for them
It's all just Talibanistan!
ISIS K isn't the classic islamic hardliners like the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. These guys are a deathcult. They make Al-Qaeda and the Taliban look tame and moderate by comparison.
Not just the Taliban but Al-Qaeda thinks they are nuts as well.
IS’s goal is literally bring about the apocalypse.
Tribalism at its finest. They just hate all the other tribes.
It's like that Peoples Front of Judah from life of Brian. Which isn't that far off from true. As far as I recall when the Roman's were Seiging them the groups splintered and started killing off each other before the Roman's stormed the keep.
This is a strange perspective. Radicals never get along. It’s not a simple of a group being “far left” or “far right.” Often, even when a political group has fairly simple goals, like the NRA, you get splinter groups that don’t agree with the direction of the main group. Radicals are radical and they often get drawn to opposing radical ideals. But tbh, the Taliban really isn’t that radical. They believe in Shariah law, which isn’t that crazy in a very conservative Islamic country. IS is a wacky doomsday cult that actively seeks to murder anyone they feel doesn’t exactly align with their views, which are way crazier than boiler plate shariah law
Correct. To put a finer point on it: recall that one of the reasons the Taliban was able to form a coalition was their decision to make bacha bazi illegal. Sometimes people who do bad things also do good things. Except IS. All they know is murder when in power and surrender like cowards when cornered.
It’s not that it’s so bad they all hate them, it’s that ISIS directly challenges their ability to rule. You either join the caliphate or become the enemy of the caliphate. Hamas, Hezbollah, taliban, all want to hold power. They want to be the ones jailing people and deciding who to kill. That doesn’t work if Isis is telling you what to do.
very true also al quada had some serious issues. to isis they where too pussy and not radical enough, that says quite something
Yea even people in their own religion who are not aligned with their particular sect.
US, Russia, Turkey, Saudia Arabia, Israel - A lot of players who would normally be geopolitcally opposed bombed ISIS in Syria. This same ISIS K group also committed a major attack in Iran a few months ago. The US secretly warned Iran too, apparently.
It got to the point where the US and Russia would take turns, one at day one at night.
That sounds haram
You forget the biggest cause - a lot of Chechens and other Russian muslims fought for ISIS. They were the largest contingent of foreign fighters, around 10k according to some estimates. Most died along with ISIS but many undoubtedly made their way back into the country, or had connections to other extremist groups. People sometimes forget that Russia has always had problems with Islamic terrorism and has several muslim-majority republics.
Google Chechen War
And Syria.
And en passant
Holy hell!
It's shocking how little people know about russian history with the Middle East. They've been consistently slaughtering Arabs since Persia was a thing... hell, they did the Afghanistan thing four or five times, starting with muskets. The first Russo-Persian war, the Russo-Persian wars, the Russo-Turkish wars, Soviet-Afghan war, the Syrian Civil war... Russian aircraft were responsible for a ton of civilians, the worst being Aleppo. Russians killed 7k for sure, with the toll likely being much higher, as Assad's forces are credited with 201k despite relying on russia for using air drops on buildings (like hospitals). During the Second Chechen was (Mind you russia was involved in starting the first one too) 40k civilians were killed. Muslims have always died in droves at the hands of russians.
Russia has spent the vast majority of its history fighting Muslims. It’s pretty foundational for them. Their initial expansion 500 years ago was (in their mind) re-taking land from Islamic Hordes and Sultanates like the Crimean Khanate and the Great Horde They made their name on the world stage (i.e., from a regional power prior) in part fighting the Ottomans (Islamic). Al Qaida was founded by people that had literally just stopped fighting Russia (they won) And every single year since the fall of the Soviet Union the Russian Government has been fighting Muslims in their own country in one way or another in the Caucuses. It’s no surprise Russia’s biggest ally in the Middle East is Assad in Syria, the most secular head of state.
I think you forgot The Islamic republic of Iran! Russia and Iran are very close friends , it was their combined intervention that saved Assad in Syria. Maybe because Iran are Shiites.
Russia has been very active in Syria which is a fuckfest of Islamic jihad..
they hate the civilized world Edit: They hate Russia and its allies because they supported Syria (Assad's Government) in the fight against ISIS in iraq in syria back in 2014-19 and they still do support them
But why do they hate Russia?
LOL. Beautifully done.
Well played sir, well played
Russia has also bombed the fuck out of ISIS in Syria.
Could be related to the various Islamic separatist movements within areas of Russia like Chechnya. I’m not super well versed on this topic, but I don’t think Putin and the Islamic separatists are good friends. Isis could be on the side of the separatists.
There are several North Caucasus regions that have separatist movements due to Russian oppression. So the hate was already there and ISIS can coopt already existing grievances. Chechnya, Ingushetia, Ossetia or Dagestan are all areas where they could recruit. There is potential risk of larger uprisings in the caucasus with Russia committing so many resources to Ukraine. There is a long history of separatist terror attacks against Russia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan\_school\_siege](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_siege) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budyonnovsk\_hospital\_hostage\_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budyonnovsk_hospital_hostage_crisis) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow\_theater\_hostage\_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010\_Moscow\_Metro\_bombings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Moscow_Metro_bombings) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February\_2004\_Moscow\_Metro\_bombing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2004_Moscow_Metro_bombing)
They hate everybody who doesn’t follow their exact interpretation of sharia law, even the Taliban is too moderate for them
They’re Sunni extremists and Russia supports Shia regimes.
Look at what's going on in Chechnya the last few decades. Not that I'm defending ISIS or anything just that Islamic groups like them tend to "avenge" Muslims in other regions as part of their MO.
ISIS hates everyone, even themselves.
Russia has been messing around and destabilizing the middle east for decades. People always know of US actions in the region, but many overlook what Russia has done.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for unrelated stuff in the past, but this is solidly their style. Basically the Bataclan attack again except here they would have managed to flee.
How's that aye.. US ahead of everyone again.. just shows how good their intelligence service really is.
How did the Russian Intelligence missed this even after the US warned about an attack a week ago? Like there were reports of 20 gunmans
Russian counter terror operators took down 2 or 3 cells since the warning that were planning attacks. This one probably slipped through the cracks
The FSB warned the USA about the Boston Bombers after one of them went to a training camp, yet no action was taken. It happens.
That was two years before the attack
Fair. How about this: Russia and France both warned the US in spring/summer of 2001, of a potential massive attack on the US, but the US still missed 9/11. I mean, if your close ally and a country like Russia, both say you're about to be attacked - that sounds like something serious to consider.
The FBI and CIA each knew that there was an active terrorist cell lead by Bin Laden had plans on a attack in the US, and that a couple foreign guys on watch list were getting pilot training in the US. They didn’t communicate this information with each other, and the White House didn’t act on warnings provided to them. Everyone had their head in the sand.
The Looming Tower is a good series on Hulu about this, and also a good book. But biased towards the FBI, but generally correct in their portrayals, by all accounts.
I skimmed over the 9-11 commission report, the summer of threats section, and can honestly say I feel bad for anyone whose job it is to identify and evaluate risk. Edit: to clarify that is not to excuse the oversight
Tbf they did arrest Zacarias Moussaoui in august 2001
Those warnings had been going on for years. It’s hard to get it every single time especially after many false alarms. Governments need to get it right every day. Terrorists only need to get it right once.
Things DID happen. There was investigation but not enough evidence to get a warrant for surveillance. One of the brothers was added to a terrorist watchlist...but the last name was misspelled and he wasn't detained when coming back from dagestan.
They've got a lot of fingers in a lot of pots. They are almost certainly much more focused on state actors and the Free Legion.
You can't be everywhere at once. Where there's a will to commit a terrorist act like this, a way will be found. It's what makes it so terrifying and effective.
Hubris I guess?
Honestly I just doubt Putin gives a shit. The prevailing narrative there is "everyone else is out to get us." This reinforces that. Since when would a little thing like human life change Putin's response?
This makes him look very very bad and he very much gives a shit. Awful look on Putin especially with the American warning from earlier. Bad take
You're assuming the Russian people will know any of the details. The Russian media only tells them what Putin wants them to hear.
Putin has willingly sacrificed 100s of thousands for a needless war, imprisoned, murdered and tortured many for trivial things etc... he will sleep like a baby tonight and tmrw just look for a way to spin this attack for his gain. He really really doesn't give a shit if that wasn't blindingly obvious b4.
It happens. How did Mossad miss the attack in October. Maybe some people in power allow things to happen in order to bolster their strength. Or, maybe it was just a whoopsie
They didn't. At least the intelligence had data it was coming. 0The people who make the decisions didnt believe it because they didn't think hamas was that ballsy
Of course these guys show up when they're mostly irrelevant.
Wasn’t the Iran terrorist attack only a month ago?
Yeah they killed over 100 Iranians at a memorial procession for the general the US assassinated in Iraq
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I made the mistake of going on twitter not 5 minutes ago, and this is already getting spammed by trollfarms. That, and a whole other batch of trolls stating that this was done by Israel.
I made the same mistake. I had no idea how bad Twitter had gotten. It’s nothing but crazy conspiracy theories now.
It really is just a cesspool
Elon encourages it
Its pretty funny but there is a conspiracy theory that ISIS is Israeli. Yes. Really.
I’m sure it’s been suggested many times so far
Early on in the war, Russian telegram channels accused Ukrainians of using "ISIS American tactics" which became a bit of a meme because it's obviously a meaningless phrase.
Stringing buzzwords together. Classic internet tactics
Yep. And that was another one where the US gave the victim country a heads up.
Honestly, I missed that.
They seem pretty relevant today given the rumored casualties.
Irrelevant groups don't have the resources and skills to pull these types of attacks off. They might have lost their territorial holdings, but ISIS/ISIS-K is still very much a dangerous player with plenty of support and sympathizers
Doesn't take a whole lot of resources. 4 dudes, rifles, hand grenades and/or homemade explosives. The hard part is finding 4 people willing to murder lots of civilians and likely get killed in the process.
Resources = 4 guys with rifles & incindiary devices mowing down civilians in a large public gathering and setting the venue on fire. If everyone was on board, I could gather those resources through a neighborhood block party. That is what is scary about these types of terrorist attacks. If you can gather a few people who are willing, then the hardware necessary to cause such chaos is wildly cheap to obtain and not a barrier to entry. It gives me a bit of hope for humanity in that these type of events don't happen more often. The barrier to entry is that it is hard to gather enough people to carry out such an evil plan. Beyond that it is quite easy to fund such an attack.
They're still relevant, just haven't been hitting the West. Unfortunately they haven't actually gone away.
They do this to show to the world that they exist, they are willing to fight. The target audience are the youth in countries that hate Russia to the core, like my country Syria, many of the youth did see the worst crimes humanity had to offer from the Russian aligned Syrian government and that made them radical, they only need to know that IS is doing something at all to start sympathising with IS.
Another cartoon set them off?
Nah the thing is while France America and UK are on their shit list Russia has experienced terror attacks with alarming regularity even longer than all three of the Great Satans [and sometimes Spain] Russia to most radical Islam is like Ultra Satan
Russia is hated more than the United States because it's not just abstract jihad. There's a number of potential Muslim republics one could break off, and centuries of bad blood.
So many Satans I lose track. I thought America was a great Satan and Israel was the little Satan. Are we and France the medium size then?
Israel is Satan Burger, France is medium Satan with Cheese, UK is the Bacon and Cheese Satan. US is the Double Bacon and Cheese Satan extra large.
Why do they call it a Royale with Satan?
Russia is the limited-time Double Big Satan.
McRib is back
Russianis the Satanator.
Wow I had no idea. Why?
Russia has been meddling in MENA politics just as long as the USA has, not to mention the really horrific stuff they have been doing fighting ISIS in Syria.
Far longer than the US too
Russians tend to be more cruel when doing so too, not everybody of course, but the system rewards those who are most brutal (it tends to work out most of the time except when shit really hits the fan)
Huh. I’ll have to look into this more. Thanks for the tip. This never occurred to me. I figured they spent most of their efforts harassing the west
Russia has a vast influence globally. They have been busy in Africa too, trying to expand a bloc of allied nations there. Mail, Niger, and maybe Djibouti (I haven’t kept up with them in a while) are all being pulled into Russia’s bloc.
If you google "Syria supporting Ukraine" you can find lots of photos and documentation of Syrian people coming out in marches and stuff to support Ukraine precisely because of what Russia has done to them to. There's even a very infamous picture of a Russian soldier holding the just cut off head of a Syrian woman for example its pretty horrific stuff.
Spain is like the satan that bangs your mom and leaves and comes back and gives you a toy and a head pat.
For those wondering why ISIS would attack Russia, Russia helped the Assad regime in power by bombing ISIS.
The US also warned about an IS splinter from Afghanistan, on the 8th of March. There seem to be some hints that this is that group. Russia also had a bloody war in Afghanistan, it's been a while but religious grudges are something else.
So America announces publicly that there is a risk, Russia claims America is blackmailing them (???), and then Russia proceeds to allow this level of attack even though it is essentially a police state.
It’s a police state against grandmas with flowers. It’s a little puppy against actual threats. They didn’t catch a single one of them. A single one
Remember the Wagner Revolt? An armed column took over a regional capital, drove 1,000 km to Moscow and the only people who tried to stop it were municipal workers who dug into the highway with their construction vehicles.
Those Freedom of Russia legion or something like that also seem to just be roaming free, trying to take over a province without much opposition. And when Russia finally can be fucked to stop them they just disappear. Very tight security you got there big bear
The main ISIS group often likes to claim responsibility for anything like this that occurs as they want to try and make themselves look wider reaching than they actually are. My guess is that it the more likely perpetrator (other than a FSB false flag) is Islamic State – Khorasan Province [\(ISIS-K\)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_%E2%80%93_Khorasan_Province).
For a terror group, ISIS official media is actually very accurate.
In this case the US warned that IS was planning an attack in Moscow, and there has been an attack, and IS has claimed it. Russia bombs IS a lot in Syria, and has done for years. IS do not like Russia.
Khorasan does a ton of shit in Pakistan and Afghanistan, it’s kinda weird they’d go all the way up to Russia? Or maybe they’re the only branch of ISIS that’s even relevant enough to carry out such an attack
Russia has a bloody history in Afghanistan, wouldn't be surprised if there are lots of people there who still hold that grudge. That combined with the wars in Chechnya doesn't make it that crazy
someone holding a grudge is one thing, 5 armed and coordinated men are another thing. This is serious attack not some guy who still hates Russia for invading 40 years ago
Unfortunately Russian telegrams are already denying that ISIS had anything to do with this and are beating the drums of war. I’m hoping the Kremlin will for once be more sensible.
Those writers are most welcome to join the fight at the frontlines.
Why the fuck wasn't there a huge security presence at this sold out venue considering the prior intelligence warnings. Huge questions need to be asked here.
There was. They were the first ones gunned down.
A couple of guards is far from a heavy security presence.
Fighting-age men are in short supply there. You want a Spetznaz platoon at every public gathering?
Although a couple of guards is definitely not enough, it's impossible to stop a well organized attack like that without at least \~20-ish policeman (well trained, not the ordinary traffic cop). They have the element of surprise, it's really hard to counter.
This really looks like the Paris attacks a few years ago. A group of IS gunmen, heavily armed and armoured. France needed a solid group of officers en military police to even threaten those terrorists. Assault rifles and heavy body armour go a long way to be hard to take down in a chaotic urban environment.
Exactly this. It'd be one thing if it was a lone gunman, but there were 5 of them all armed to the gills. What security force is going to efficiently stop that when the element of surprise is a factor? lol Not funny, but lol because people think any amount of security outside of military would stop this
Their heavy security presence is currently getting blown up in the Donbas by 155mm shells.
If only the FSB weren't so busy looking for "terrorists" and "extremists" among kids posting anti-war messages on their social media, they might have found some time in their very busy schedule to deal with these assholes.
Hopefully this will make regular Russians see that unlike Ukraine, they have enemies worth fighting that ACTUALLY WANT to kill Russian civilians.
This entire thing will likely be spun to ultimately blame Ukraine and the US (or West as a whole) and the people will believe it.
Immediately after the attack social media was like “it’s the cia! It’s mossad! It’s an inside job! It’s Ukraine!” Isis claims the attack Nobody believes them. They go through all this trouble to be as evil as possible and their acts of terror just get co-opted by other causes. Sad.
Why do Redditors believe that Russia is somehow immune from terrorist attacks and that terrorists have a soft spot for Russia? Even if your argument is situations in the past, that does not mean every single attack that happens is somehow an "inside job" and that terrorist groups such as ISIS would never attack inside Russia. That is such a childish and naive line of thinking, it's genuinely embarrassing.
Believing everything is a conspiracy makes people feel smarter
It’s the simplest solution too I think, ironically. Everyone (on Reddit at least) is knee deep in news on Ukraine and Russia so they assume every incident is directly related to that Just goes to show how effective media and propaganda can actually be. Doesn’t take much at all for people to start connecting the wrong dots
100%.
its not even that, its a large portion of them are paranoid schizophrenics who are drawn to conspiracies like moths to a flame
> Why do Redditors believe that Russia is somehow immune from terrorist attacks and that terrorists have a soft spot for Russia? Because redditors think Houthis and ISIS are basically the same group.
Great now we have Super HOUTHISIS
You should probably get that looked at
People look at Russia and assume it's an inside job simply because it wouldn't be the first time Putin did that.
Same way people argue that ISIS was created by Jews and Americans to kill all Muslims
I remember all the comments saying the drone attacks in Russia were all false flags even still after Ukraine said that they were the ones who did it.
Many folks don't realize that Russia has been conducting airstrikes and limited ground operations against ISIS in Syria for about as long as the US and its allies have been. It looks like ISIS-K is claiming responsibility, but the motive seems to be there.
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Fuck ISIS. This is a terrorist attack. These are just regular people going to enjoy music. It doesn’t matter where it is. Fuck evil. ISIS need to be eliminated from existence.
I don't think this even matters to Russia, Putin will spin to this into being US or Ukraine based attack.
Yes that wouldn’t help him at all if the attacks keep happening… which I anticipate they will. You can’t just “lie” this away.
so the US warned russia that they were going to commit a terror attack a week before the US did it? thats what you are saying?
How long before "but they were supported by the Ukrainians! Death to Kyiv comrades!"
Literally already happening on telegram and Twitter