Afghanistan Times
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By Mansoor Faizy
The Islamic State (IS), which is also known as Daesh extremist group in Afghanistan, is said to have control some 88,000 sq km of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq that has imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people there. Moreover, the group generated billions of dollars in revenue from oil, extortion, kidnapping, and etc…
US President Donald Trump confirms killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the fugitive emir of Daesh. He was killed in a raid on his hideout by the US Special Forces in northwest Syria, which is a “great day” for people all across the world who have suffered for long from the cruelty of terrorism. Indeed, the death of Baghdadi is an important moment in the fight against terror, but will it be logical to say battle against the evil Daesh group is over. There is more work and comprehensive operations is need of the hour to bring an end to the murderous, barbaric activities of Daesh. By killing its leader, the group’s fighter will not stop, rather try to revenge. Daesh threat must be ended once for all.
Baghdadi formed so-called Daesh in 2014, and the world’s most wanted man, killed himself and his three children by detonating his suicide vest after being trapped in a tunnel during raid by US commandos on Saturday. They self-styled (Caliph) had a US 25 million bounty on his head and was under hunt by US and its allies since five years. Once his death report went out, but later proved wrong after Baghdadi being appeared in a Mosque, delivering speech to his followers. He had three wives that all killed in the raid, based on some reports.
Will it be really gone. The legacy he left behind which is to kill people for undone sine, has also finished like him and the war on the most extremist group in the world, come to an end? Many leaders of different militant outfits were killed in the past. US forces killed Osama bin-Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda Terrorist Network, and Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, the leader of Taliban group in Pakistan. Mullah Omar the founder and leader of Taliban was died in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2013. But these top leadership losses have never wedged terrorist activities of these groups. The more they lost their leaders the more they tried to increase evil attacks which had civilian casualties. In Afghanistan, Taliban escalated its attack after Mullah Omar’s dead despite his death being kept for almost two years. Their second leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed in US drone, but war has not changed rather intensified. The interesting and confusing point is that the leadership lost have never negatively impact the group’s fighters. They continued and will continue useless fighting. It is the same in case of Daesh. But one thing is very much clear that all terrorist leaders and ground fighters will be eliminated because there is zero tolerance for terrorism in this world. To do that, anti-Daesh efforts should be properly engaged and international community must not allow Daesh to glorify someone who auctioned such inhuman and abhorrent criminal acts.
Afghan leaders welcomed Baghdadi’s killing, saying the group has targeted Muslims. Daesh targeted specific minority at first hand, and all Muslims in Afghanistan, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said. Daesh fighters were first appeared in eastern Nangarhar province in 2014. The group carried several deadly attacks, in which hundred civilians were killed and wounded. Daesh fighters even did not spare mosques, shrines, religious ceremonies, schools, sport clubs, wedding parties, and public institutions. One of its deadly was when Daesh group’s claimed responsibility for the wedding bombing in Kabul that killed at least 63 and wounded at 183. The victims of the overnight suicide bombing at a packed wedding hall were mostly members of the minority Shi’ite Hazara community. There are many other incidents happened which had dozens casualties.
The death of Daesh leader is the biggest blow to this group and to terrorism, Afghan Presidential Palace said. Sediq Sediqqi in a post on twitter said the Afghan government strongly welcomes the US forces’ operation that led to the death of Baghdadi. Afghan officials believe that militant faction had grown weaker recently, and the death of the group’s leader would further arouse their activities.
