ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Islamic State (ISIS) once again threatened in a new video released on Saturday to strike Iran, two years after the group carried out a deadly attack in the heart of Tehran.
A brief portion of the video, titled “The Soldiers of the Caliphate in Iran” speaks about Iran. The one-minute segment shows five men on screen, allegedly in Iran, with their faces covered, holding AK-47s, with the infamous black and white flag of ISIS hung up behind them.
“In truth the Iranian fire worshipping government since its establishment has fought the true believers of Islam… and placed its hands in the hands of the enemies of this religion,” Abu Mujahed al-Farsi, dressed in military fatigues, read in Persian from a prepared statement. “We warn the fire worshipping government and its allies: wait for our actions and not our words.”
The chilling warning comes two years after five ISIS militants struck the Iranian parliament and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic. The June 2017 attacks ended with 17 dead and nearly 50 people wounded.
Iran rounded up hundreds of people in the aftermath of the attack and executed eight men in July 2018 for collaborating with the group’s militants to carry out the assault.
The over 12-minute video, titled “The Soldiers of Caliphate in Khorasan”, features several militants railing against Pakistan and the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan, and threatening to strike India and Pakistan.
Group of ISIS militants with one addressing the camera speaking in Persian, allegedly in Western Afghanistan near Iranian border PHOTO: screenshot from ISIS video, June 29, 2019
ISIS is currently engaged in a fierce war with the Taliban and the government forces in four mountainous provinces in the east and north of Afghanistan. The group has succeeded in planting deep roots in Afghanistan, having recruited thousands of fighters, some of them former Taliban, to its ranks.
ISIS became active in Afghanistan just after the group swept across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. The group has describes the Taliban as “traitors” and denounces their current peace talks with the US government to end the conflict in Afghanistan.
Since its defeat in the battlefield of Baghouz in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, the group has intensified its deadly insurgency in northern Iraq and has branched off to parts of Africa.
On Saturday, ISIS announced that it killed a number of Malian soldiers in the region of Gao, also on its propaganda channel on Telegram.
Peshmerga Commander Wasta Rasul warned on Friday of a resurgence of ISIS in northern Iraq, saying it was never really uprooted. “It has completely regrouped and is stronger than before”, he said.
Iran provided extensive military support to Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and Syria to fight the ISIS militants, in part to ensure that they wouldn’t reach the western borders of Iran and threaten its security.
Iran has increased its influence in Syria and Iraq as a result of the war with ISIS, but has come under stinging criticism by the US government, which accuses Tehran of fomenting tension and instability in the region by propping up militias loyal to Iran.
Hundreds of Iranian Sunnis from its Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Balochi communities attracted to the extremist ideologies of ISIS and other terrorist groups, joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.
As Iran deals with the looming threat from the US, Tehran may have to worry about another threat lurking nearby. The ISIS video featured another five men who wore military uniforms describing their location as west Afghanistan, which is near the Iranian border.
The militant who addressed the camera spoke in Persian and denounced the Coalition forces, the Iraqi and Syrian forces, as well as the Peshmerga fighters for assisting to defeat the group in Iraq and Syria.
