A civil war seems to be brewing in Afghanistan as tensions are starting to heighten between the Taliban and ISIS-k, a separate terrorist group that strongly follows Sharia Law. ISIS-k has entered the picture looking to take Afghanistan, and things are starting to look worse and worse everyday.

ISIS-k is a group affiliated with the Islamic region of Iraq and Syria, and they follow the extreme laws and restrictions of Sharia Law. The group was formed by a small group in the Pakistani Taliban, and the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan, as well as a small faction of the defected Afghani Taliban. This new ISIS-k movement is encroaching from the northern point of Afghanistan looking to take over the entirety of the country.

Sharia Law is Islam’s set of restrictions and it is taken from the Quoran, Islam’s holy book. This set of rules acts as laws of living that Islamic people have to adhere to in their daily lives. This text includes rules and guides for fasting, praying, and aiding the homeless and needy.

Both the Taliban and ISIS-k follow a strict form of the Sharia Law, and both the groups proceed with these ideals by exacting violent punishment on those who don’t believe the same that these terrorist groups do. The only real differences between the two groups are the main areas of attack. The Taliban focuses mainly on Afghanistan, while ISIS-k has mainly targeted undeveloped African countries like Mozambique and Nigeria.

“To tell you the truth I’ve never really heard of ISIS-k before this bombing,” said Naugatuck High School teacher Mr. Dymond. “I was just shocked at what had happened with the bombing at the airport, and I’m assuming that they must not like the Taliban.”

  As has been reported the U.S. has pulled over 120,000 people from Afghanistan in the last month and are focused on bringing as many Afghani people out of the region as possible. Many people have found this to be an underwhelming operation, and that feeling was then worsened when a scuicide bombing took place outside of Kabul International Airport killing 13 U.S. soldiers and over 150 Afghani citizens. 

Now, the United States is planning to work with the Taliban, who now have billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment, to prevent a full fledged civil war between ISIS-k and the Taliban from taking place in the Afghanistan region. 

“The Taliban is a ruthless group,” General Mark A. Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with the New York Times. “But in war you do what you must.” 

“I don’t think the U.S. handled it very well, but now you have to do what you have to do to protect everyone involved in the situation; and if that means forming an alliance with the Taliban, then that’s what you have to do,” Former Marine Corps Corporal Chris Barry said in an interview.

The Taliban will try and continue to solidify its reign as an official country in the upcoming months as they continue to push China for major investments to let them enter the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).