RUSI expert Dr Antonio Giustozzi discusses the threat posed by Islamic State Khorasan Province, the regional branch of Islamic State active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on research conducted by RUSI as part of the EU-funded STRIVE Afghanistan programme.

On Tuesday, Iran used missiles and drones to strike western Pakistan near Koh-e-Sabz. On Thursday, Pakistan conducted airstrikes in southeastern Iran near Saravan, then released a statement claiming that “Iran is a brotherly country.” More than a sibling squabble is going on here. Iran and Pakistan were apparently targeting hideouts of armed non-state actors—Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan, and the Balochistan […]

Four Afghan nationals have been arrested in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, and charged with kidnapping three other foreigners and holding them for ransom. Officials with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) said Thursday that the kidnappers demanded 18,000 euros (US$19,556) in ransom for the victims, who were from Iran and Switzerland, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported. […]

Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam political party chief, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, has said that a mechanism should be created to address the issues between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In an interview with Geo TV, Fazl-ur-Rehman said that Pakistan had been hoping that the Islamic Emirate would be a good friend for the country, but the recent events disappointed Islamabad. He considered his recent visit […]

On January 15, 2024, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards initiated a missile attack on a purported Mossad spy base in northern Iraq and targeted “anti-Iran terror groups” in Syria, intensifying ongoing hostilities and escalating the risk of a wider regional conflict. Subsequently, Iran acknowledged launching a missile and drone assault on western Pakistan on January 16, claiming it was aimed at the […]

The world’s leaders, policymakers, commentators, and other movers and shakers gathered in the Swiss mountain town of Davos last week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. On top of the agenda were some of the world’s most pressing geopolitical issues: Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Hamas, China and Taiwan, trade and economics, energy security, and global shipping. […]

The badlands that form the Iran-Pakistan border have for years been notorious for smuggling, human trafficking, narcotics trade, and of course, movement of insurgents and terrorists. It is anything but a tranquil frontier because skirmishes, shallow incursions and raids, and even occasional mortar shelling are fairly routine. But both countries have somehow managed to keep things from spiralling out of […]

An Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil was driven by Iran’s efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst. Both the heavily-armed neighbours, oftentimes at odds over instability on their […]

The challenge ahead is a formidable one that will require the military-intelligence services to fully focus on this newly metastasized terrorist threat in order to emerge victorious, which in turn necessitates their top brass giving them the order to abandon the all-out nationwide crackdown against the opposition. Pakistan’s prior large-scale anti-terrorist operations succeeded precisely because those carrying them out weren’t […]

The impression that Iran regards Pakistan as a serious security threat on par with the Israeli spy base in Iraq and ISIS ones in Syria that it also struck in sequence. With all three taking place as the latest Israeli-Hamas war escalates into a regional proxy war between Israel-US and Iran, the innuendo is that Pakistan is aligned with them […]