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A recent United Nations’ (UN) report has warned about the increasingly complex threat from Daesh-Khorasan amid a worsening security situation in Afghanistan. Alarmingly, the report notes that Daesh-K remains a serious security challenge with both regional and global ambitions. Furthermore, it notes that the terror group is active in northern Afghanistan and closer to Pakistan’s border with potent operational capacity.

On February 6, Daesh-K’s sister franchise in Pakistan targeted a Shia Mosque in Islamabad during the Friday prayer, killing 31 worshippers and wounding 169 others. In the responsibility claim, the terror group opportunistically justified its barbarity. Likewise, in January, Daesh-K targeted a Chinese restaurant in Kabul’s Shahr-e Naw area, killing six Afghans and one Chinese national. The restaurant was frequented by Chinese nationals working in Kabul.

At any rate, the UN report’s findings show grave concerns about Afghanistan’s security trajectory and potential for the country to serve as a base for transnational attacks, even as the international community’s attention remains on other conflict zones, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and Iran-US tensions among others. Similar concerns were echoed at a recent UN Security Council’s meeting as well.

The UN report’s conclusions are in sharp contrast to the situation in 2025 when Daesh-K faced multiple setbacks both on operational and propaganda fronts.

Operationally, the arrests of its several key leaders in 2025, including the Abbey Gate attack’s mastermind Mohammad Sharifullah, the spokesperson Sultan Aziz Azzam and a key social media propagandist Ozgur Altun who went by the nom de guerre of Abu Yasir Al-Turki, by Pakistani security........

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