In the wake of a video showing regional ISIS supporters beheading a Pakistani soldier, Afghan officials confirmed that ISIS is not only active in Afghanistan, but increasingly so in the southern Helmand Province.
Gen. Mahmoud Khan admitted that ISIS fighters are openly recruiting in Helmand, and that a religious leader named Mullah Abdul Rauf has been trying to bring tribal leaders on board.
Mullah Rauf was a commander for the Taliban years ago, but now seems to be on the ISIS bandwagon. This could be problematic not just for the Afghan government, but for the Taliban as well.
Reports are that in southern Helmand, where the Taliban has taken much territory recently, ISIS is clashing with them, and they could easily become a third force in the ongoing Afghan War, just as they have in the Syrian Civil War.
