DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ 3 Reasons This Country Is a Top ISIS Recruiting Ground
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Neil Macfarquhar | More About Neil Macfarquhar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the past year, jihadists from Tajikistan have been involved in an unusually high number of terrorist attacks or foiled plots linked to the Islamic State. Before that, Tajiks staged bloody assaults in Iran and Turkey, while several schemes in Europe said to involve Tajiks were thwarted. Hundreds of men from Tajikistan — a small, impoverished country in Central Asia controlled by an authoritarian president — have joined an affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, analysts say. Poverty Fuels DiscontentTajikistan ranks among the world’s poorest countries, which drives millions of workers to seek better lives elsewhere. In a country of 10 million people, a majority of working men, estimated at more than two million, toil abroad at any given time.

Persons: — Organizations: Islamic, Fuels Locations: jihadists, Tajikistan, Islamic State, Moscow, Iran, Turkey, Europe, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Khorasan Province

☆ An ISIS Terror Group Draws Half Its Recruits From Tiny Tajikistan
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Neil Macfarquhar | Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even though he spent five years in Tajik prisons as a teenager, she said he never exhibited signs of violent extremism. “We need to understand — who is recruiting young Tajiks, why do they want to highlight us as a nation of terrorists?” said the mother, Muyassar Zargarova. Many governments and terrorism experts are asking the same question. Tajik adherents of the Islamic State — especially within its affiliate in Afghanistan known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (I.S.K.P. ISIS-K is believed to have several thousand soldiers, with Tajiks constituting more than half, experts said.

Persons: ”, Muyassar Organizations: Islamic Locations: Moscow, Tajikistan, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Khorasan Province, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Europe

☆ Opinion: Despite ISIS threat, Putin’s only concern is the politics of terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Opinion Douglas London | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Russia knows it has a terrorist problem, despite its deflection and spin to preserve Putin’s image, but his priorities are elsewhere. Russian intelligence also suffers from systemic failings in recognizing, penetrating and dismantling terrorist cells, failings that stem from doctrine and a deliberately stovepiped structure that obstructs information sharing and agility. FSB officers will coerce, threaten and intimidate potential sources with diminishing returns that will only fuel ISIS-K recruitment and fundraising, which is no doubt seeing a surge from its Moscow attack. Russian intelligence will be left to depend on the unwilling, ill-informed or duplicitous. At the Islamic State’s height, Tajik Gulmurod Khalimov commanded its Iraqi capital of Mosul.

Persons: Douglas London, ”, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Bortnikov, Douglas, Mike Pompeo, Russia’s, Sergey Naryshkin, Igor Korobov, Donald Trump, Pompeo, Russia Michael McFaul, Barack Obama, Trump, Putin, Gulmurod Khalimov, Khalimov, “ Omar al, “ Omar, ” Batirashvili, Washington, Sergei Skripal, Yulia Organizations: CIA, of American Intelligence, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Global National Security Institutes, CNN, Federal Security Service, CBC, Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Russian Military Intelligence, Trump, White, ISIS, Central, Former, Terrorism, Embassy, K’s, Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, Islamic Locations: South, Southwest Asia, London, Khorasan, United States, Afghanistan, Islamic State, Great Britain, Russia, Washington, State, Moscow, Syria, Iraq, Russian, US, Ukraine, St . Petersburg, Central Asia, Central Asian, Central, East, Turkey, Turkish, Istanbul, Mosul, Chechen, Georgian, Georgia, Iran, Kerman, Salisbury, England

A day before the U.S. embassy in Moscow put out a rare public alert this month about a possible extremist attack at a Russian concert venue, the local C.I.A. station delivered a private warning to Russian officials that included at least one additional detail: The plot in question involved an offshoot of the Islamic State known as ISIS-K.American intelligence had been tracking the group closely and believed the threat credible. Within days, however, President Vladimir V. Putin was disparaging the warnings, calling them “outright blackmail” and attempts to “intimidate and destabilize our society.”Three days after he spoke, gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall outside Moscow last Friday night and killed at least 143 people in the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly two decades. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre with statements, a photo and a propaganda video. What made the security lapse seemingly even more notable was that in the days before the massacre Russia’s own security establishment had also acknowledged the domestic threat posed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ” Organizations: Crocus City Hall, Moscow, ISIS, Islamic State Locations: U.S, Moscow, Russian, Islamic, Crocus, Russia, Afghanistan, State Khorasan Province

☆ ISIS Affiliate Linked to Moscow Attack Has Global Ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Five years ago this month, an American-backed Kurdish and Arab militia ousted Islamic State fighters from a village in eastern Syria, the group’s last sliver of territory. Since then, the organization that once staked out a self-proclaimed caliphate across Iraq and Syria has metastasized into a more traditional terrorist group — a clandestine network of cells from West Africa to Southeast Asia engaged in guerrilla attacks, bombings and targeted assassinations. None of the group’s affiliates have been as relentless as the Islamic State in Khorasan, which is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and has set its sights on attacking Europe and beyond. U.S. officials say the group carried out the attack near Moscow on Friday, killing scores of people and wounding many others. In January, Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed scores and wounded hundreds of others at a memorial service for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, who was targeted in a U.S. drone strike four years earlier.

Persons: Qassim Suleimani Organizations: Islamic Locations: American, Syria, Iraq, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Khorasan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Europe, U.S, Moscow, State Khorasan

☆ ISIS-K, Group Tied to Moscow Attack, Has Grown Bolder and More Violent
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Christina Goldbaum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Few know better than the Taliban what a relentless foe the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan can be. Much of the West considers the Taliban, which reclaimed power in the country in 2021, to be an extremist Islamic movement. But the Islamic State Khorasan, the affiliate that took responsibility for a terrorist attack in suburban Moscow on Friday, has slammed the Taliban government, calling the group’s version of Islamic rule insufficiently hard-line. The Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, is one of the last significant antagonists that the Taliban face in Afghanistan. In the months after the Taliban seized power, ISIS-K carried out near daily attacks on their soldiers at roadside checkpoints and in neighborhoods that are home to the country’s Hazara ethnic minority.

Persons: Pakistan’s Organizations: West Locations: Afghanistan, State Khorasan, Moscow, Hazara, Russian, Kabul

The group got a dramatic second wind soon after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government that year. The attack raised ISIS-K’s international profile, positioning it as a major threat to the Taliban’s ability to govern. Counterterrorism officials in Europe say that in recent months they have snuffed out several nascent ISIS-K plots to attack targets there. And now the group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow. “ISIS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”

Persons: Biden, Michael E, “, Qassim Suleimani, Vladimir V, Putin, Colin P, Clarke, ” Organizations: Taliban, U.S, Islamic State, ISIS, military’s, Command, Counterterrorism, Soufan, Kremlin Locations: Kabul, Afghanistan, Moscow, State Khorasan Province, U.S, United States, Persian, Europe, Kerman, Iran, Gen, Iranian, Russia, New York, Chechnya, Syria

☆ What we know about the Moscow concert hall attack — and why ISIS-K is claiming responsibility
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A group of unidentified individuals opened fire at the Crocus City Hall, a music venue located on the western edge of Moscow, on Friday evening. The Ministry of Emergency Situations told the Russian news agency that a third of Crocus City Hall was engulfed. If ISIS-K is confirmed to have carried out the attack, the group may have done so on Friday simply because they were ready, Byman said. The warning was partly based on intelligence that indicated an ISIS-K presence in Russia, two US officials told The Washington Post. Three days before the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the warnings, calling them "provocative."

Persons: —, Mikhail Murashko, Amaq, Hamid Karzai, Daniel Byman, Byman, Michael Kugelman, Vladimir Putin, Colin P, Clarke Organizations: Service, Crocus City Hall, TASS, Federal Security Service, Business, Crocus City, Associated Press, Russian, Ministry, ISIS, CNN, The New York Times, Islamic, Center for Strategic & International Studies, CSIS, Wilson, Reuters, Washington Post, Soufan, New York Times, Kremlin Locations: Crocus, Moscow, Russian, Russia's, Khorasan Province, Afghanistan, Islamic State, Washington, DC, Pakistan, Kabul, Russia, Chechnya

☆ Death toll from Moscow concert hall attack rises to 115. The FSB confirmed 11 suspects have been arrested.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Cameron Manley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewThe death toll from the attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall Friday night has risen to 115 as Russia's Federal Security Bureau confirmed eleven suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack. Emergency services vehicles are seen outside the burning Crocus City Hall concert hall following the shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow on March 22, 2024. ArrestsRussia's FSB confirmed that 11 people had been arrested in connection with the attack on the concert hall. AdvertisementA woman lays flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of Moscow's Crocus City Hall a day after terrorist attack. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack "in the strongest possible terms," his spokesman said.

Persons: —, STRINGER, Andrey Vorobyov, OLGA MALTSEVA, Vladimir Putin, Dmitrii Peskov, Mykhailo Podolyak, Amaq, Daniel Byman, Hamid Karzai, Byman, Putin, Antonio Guterres Organizations: Service, Moscow's, Federal Security, Russia's, Business, Islamic, Kremlin, TASS, Associated Press, Getty, Health, Moscow Crocus City, Getty Images, Russian Federation, Novosti, State, Hall, Kyiv, ISIS, CNN, The New York Times, AP, Russian, CSIS, Central, UN, Council Locations: Moscow's Crocus, Islamic State, Russian, Crocus, Krasnogorsk, Moscow, AFP, Ukraine, Khorasan Province, Afghanistan, Kabul, Russia

☆ What We Know About ISIS-K, the Group That Claimed Responsibility for the Moscow Attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-22 | by ( Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The group that claimed credit for the deadly terrorist attack in Moscow on Friday is the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.ISIS-K was founded in 2015 by disaffected members of the Pakistani Taliban, who then embraced a more violent version of Islam. The group saw its ranks cut roughly in half, to about 1,500 to 2,000 fighters, by 2021 from a combination of American airstrikes and Afghan commando raids that killed many of its leaders. The group got a dramatic second wind soon after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government that year. During the U.S. military withdrawal from the country, ISIS-K carried out a suicide bombing at the international airport in Kabul in August 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and as many as 170 civilians. The attack raised ISIS-K’s international profile, positioning it as a major threat to the Taliban’s ability to govern.

Organizations: Islamic State, Taliban Locations: Moscow, Afghanistan, State Khorasan Province, Kabul, U.S

☆ Analysis: At this general election in Pakistan, old dynasties vie for power and populist Imran Khan languishes in prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Sophia Saifi | Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

That sets the stage for a difficult road to recovery for whoever wins in a nation where no democratically elected prime minister has ever completed a full term in office. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan attends a lawyers' convention in Lahore on September 21, 2022. Veteran Sharif will face a strong challenge, however, from first-time candidate for Prime Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 35, son of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto. Manahil Ahmed, 23, called Pakistan’s political environment “particularly hostile” right now. For Pakistan’s military and police forces, the last year was the bloodiest in a decade.

Persons: Imran Khan, –, Arif Ali, Nawaz Sharif, Sharif, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Benazir Bhutto, Khan –, Khan, Fareed Khan, ”, Rabiya Arooj, Khan’s, Bushra Bibi, Imran Khan's, Asad Zaidi, Pakistan’s, Farzana Shaikh, “, ’, Murtaza Solang, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Mohsin Raza, he’s, Raja Ikram, Ameer Hamza, Manahil Ahmed, Shaikh, Hussain Nadim, Maurice R, Greenberg, ‘, Aamir Qureshi, Shoaib Tanveer, Baou Nadeem, ” Shaikh, Farooq Naeem, “ Sharif, He’s, Tim Willasey Organizations: Pakistan CNN —, Getty, PTI, World Bank, Pakistan, Bloomberg, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, CNN, for Research, Security Studies, Pakistan’s People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Baloch Liberation Army, Yale University, Pakistan Army –, Workers, King’s College London Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan CNN — Pakistan, Lahore, AFP, Karachi, “, Rawalpindi, Asia, Hafizabad, Khan’s, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, India, Afghanistan, Iran, State Khorasan, restive Balochistan, Balochistan, Punjab, Sharif, States, China, British

☆ Rehan Zeb Khan: Pakistan election candidate killed ahead of general election
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Sophia Saifi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —A Pakistan election candidate was shot dead while campaigning on Wednesday, as violence escalates a week before polls open. Rehan Zeb Khan, an independent candidate affiliated with former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was shot in a “targeted killing” when gunmen opened fire on his car in a market in Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to district police. In response to the violence, Pakistan’s Election Commission (ECP) summoned an emergency meeting of security officials on Thursday to discuss the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the two provinces, according to a statement from the commission. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s military also met for an annual conference where they discussed the possible deployment of the country’s army to assist the election commission during the general election next week, according to a government statement. The election commission has declared February 8, the day of the election, a public holiday for the country’s 240 million people.

Persons: Rehan Zeb Khan, Imran Khan’s, ”, Malik Kaleem Ullah, Home and Tribal Affairs Balochistan Zubair Jamali, “, Khan Organizations: Pakistan CNN —, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly, Reuters, Pakistan’s People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League, Home and Tribal Affairs Balochistan, Baloch Liberation Army, PTI Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Imran Khan’s Pakistan, Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, State Khorasan, Balochistan, Home and Tribal Affairs Balochistan Zubair, Sibi

☆ ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility for Deadly Attack at Rally in Pakistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Christina Goldbaum | More About Christina Goldbaum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Islamic State affiliate in South Asia claimed responsibility on Monday for a suicide bombing in northwest Pakistan that killed dozens of people and injured about 200 more, in the latest bloody sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country. The death toll from the explosion on Sunday, which targeted a political rally in the Bajaur district near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, rose to at least 54 people, Shaukat Abbas, a senior officer at the provincial police’s counterterrorism department, said on Monday. The Islamic State affiliate, known as the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed on Monday that a suicide bomber had carried out the attack, characterizing it as part of the group’s war against democracy as a system of government, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The blast was among the deadliest terrorist attacks in months in Pakistan, where some militant groups operating along the border with Afghanistan have become more active over the past year. The rise in violence represents a grim shift: Since 2014, when security forces carried out a major military operation to flush militants out of Pakistan, the country has experienced relative calm.

Persons: Shaukat Abbas Organizations: Islamic State, SITE Intelligence Group Locations: South Asia, Pakistan, Bajaur, Pakistan’s, Afghanistan, State Khorasan

☆ The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh Ehsan Popalzai Antonio Jarne Lou Robinson | Eliza Mackintosh | Ehsan Popalzai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

“Currently we don’t have security in Afghanistan at all, whenever we go out we don’t know if we will come home alive or not,” he added. Taliban security forces guard a checkpoint near the foreign ministry in Kabul on March 27, after an ISIS-K suicide bomber struck the site. The data, which is available in a live map, includes 367 pieces of open-source evidence — largely videos and images shared on social media — about 70 ISIS-K attacks since August 2021. As the Taliban try to minimize the threat ISIS-K poses, attacks on civilians continue. Taliban security forces have been waging ongoing operations and night raids against ISIS-K.

☆ Kabul airport attack 'mastermind' killed by Taliban, US officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Soldiers, Airmen and civilian staff receive casualties who were injured outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport and evacuated to the U.S. Army-operated Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) for further care in Landstuhl, Germany August 27, 2021. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center/Marcy Sanchez/Handout via REUTERSWASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - The Taliban have killed an Islamic State militant who was the "mastermind" behind a suicide attack at Kabul's international airport in 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of civilians during the United States' chaotic evacuation from the country, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, after an old name of the region, is an enemy of the Taliban. Fighters loyal to Islamic State first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in 2014 and later made inroads in other areas. Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Taliban kill six Islamic State members in raid in Afghan capital - spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Taliban security forces killed six Islamic State members in an overnight operation in the Afghan capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the ruling group's administration said on Saturday. "They were the attackers of the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque and also ... of Kaaj Institute," said Ahmadi, who said one Taliban security force member was killed in the operation. read moreSince the Taliban took over in 2021, they say they have focused on securing the country after decades of war. The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, known as Islamic State Khorasan, after an old name of the region, are enemies of the Taliban. Fighters loyal to Islamic State first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in 2014, and later made inroads in other areas.

Search resuls for: "State Khorasan"

16 mentions found