This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, September 2nd, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Taliban's takeover of Kabul was swift, but there is no love lost between the

Taliban and ISIS K. ISIS K hates the Taliban and

claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in Kabul after the U.S. began its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Cato's Saher Khan describes how ISIS K is gaining traction in Afghanistan.

First of all, these attacks on Kabul, in particular the one at the airport of a single suicide bomber killed as of this recording just under 200 people.

What is your big takeaway from that? Well, I think it was an absolutely tragic day

in Kabul, which has been experiencing many tragic days.

You know, this was done at a time

when there are hundreds of people waiting in line with their families and loved

ones trying to leave Afghanistan because the Taliban have taken over and it is absolutely

atrocious that the suicide bomb took place.

But I think what it really highlights is the instability of the

situation and how Afghanistan basically is in the middle of a civil war.

Now this particular attack is also really interesting and kind of harrowing because it was done by a

suicide bomber that belongs to a group called Islamic State Khorasan which is an

affiliate of the Islamic State that operates in Iraq and Syria.

Now, Daesh or Islamic State as it's called is a much larger group

and its ideology basically is to create a Khalafid in which Afghanistan will be part of a Khalafid and where all Muslims ideally would obey them.

And this is sort of their larger ideology and Islamic State Khorasan is a smaller group that has the same ideology.

They actually hate the Taliban and they think of the Taliban as a group that is not adhering to jihad that has basically catered to Western interests.

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