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There is also the possibility that, like many militant groups in the region and IS affiliates, they claim credit for attacks that they outsource to others or have little to do with organizing in the first place. This is a low-cost, high-impact means to spread their message and gain recruits. But it also makes it incredibly difficult to gauge how dangerous they actually are, and how best to defeat them.

On March 25, ISIS-K media outlets issued a rambling claim they executed the attack in Moscow but it was thin on evidence. It claimed the Moscow attack was meant to embarrass the Taliban government, undermining its counter-terror pledges and to discourage Chinese and Russian investment in Afghanistan.

ISIS-K made similar claims after its September 2022 attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul.

ISIS-Ks ambitions are to establish an Islamic State in Central Asia.

Inside Afghanistan, its ranks are mainly drawn from disgruntled Taliban as well as young, conservative Afghans who oppose the Taliban. Its younger recruits are increasingly multi-ethnic, drawing in disaffected ethnic minority populations. It increasingly recruits from disaffected Afghans and Central Asians, particularly from Tajikistan, as well as from among Central Asian migrants in Turkey and Europe.

In Afghanistan, its recruitment entails careful vetting and indoctrination. Abroad, it relies heavily on social media outreach and messaging apps. Its news outfit, Amaq, publishes in at least five languages and runs Telegram channels in as many, if not more.

Read more:
What is ISIS-K, the terror group allegedly responsible for the Moscow concert hall attack? - POLITICO Europe

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