There is an undeniable increase in global extremist attacks. From France and Turkey to Germany and now Afghanistan, extremists and deranged lone wolves are terrorising communities with heinous attacks against civilians. In the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, three ISIL suicide bombers attacked a peaceful Shia protest march, killing 80 people and wounding 230. The scale of the attack is staggering and the ramifications for Afghanistan’s fragile state institutions are potentially enormous.
As the world’s attention has been focused on extremist attacks in Europe, ISIL has been losing ground in its traditional strongholds in Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi military has made several impressive gains by retaking the city of Fallujah from ISIL control and preparing to free Mosul from the militant’s grasp. There is a fear now that the militants will increase the frequency of their attacks on new targets, such as the Shia march in Kabul, while establishing new bases of operation in parts of Afghanistan outside their strongholds in the country’s eastern provinces.
The Kabul attack adds weight to calls for reforms inside the Afghan government. There has been ample disquiet about the pace of security reforms and the endemic infighting that has plagued president Ashraf Ghani’s coalition. The security establishment is in desperate need of overhaul and international assistance is needed to assist Afghanistan’s continuing nation-building effort. Until that happens, ISIL will continue to create chaos by exploiting the security vacuum.
As this paper argued after the attack on patrons at a McDonald’s restaurant in Munich by a lone gunman inspired by anti-immigrant Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik, the international community is suffering from a wave of political instability that extremists are exploring to sow chaos. The best response is a unified response. ISIL inspired attacks in France and suicide bombings in Kabul are two sides of the same coin.
The casualty figures are different and media attention has faded faster in the aftermath of the Kabul attack than the one in Nice, but the international community must still recognise that all these attacks are connected. Most importantly, we must bear in mind that any constructive solution to the problem of international extremism can only be achieved through cooperation.