ISIS attacks on Iran

• Context (TH): The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for Kerman (Iran) bomb attacks.

ISIS – Iran and Shia- Sunni Conflict

• The Sunni outfit ISIS sees Iran, a Shia theocracy, as an ideological rival and battlefield enemy.
• ISIS refers to the Shias as Rafidha (a derogatory term for Shias used by Sunni extremists).
• For the IS, Shias are not real Muslims — they are apostates who follow shirk (idolatry).
• In the IS-controlled territories of Iraq and Syria till 2018, Shias faced systemic persecution and violence.
• IS also continued to attack Afghanistan’s Hazara Shia minority.
• Iran-backed militias targeted ISIS in parts of Syria and predominantly in Iraq.
• Earlier, ISIS carried out a coordinated attack on Iran’s Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini.
• Iran also sees ISIS as an immediate security threat.
• Iran dispatched Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units, being the first country to aid Iraq against ISIS attacks.
• Iran’s state organs refer to ISIS as a “terrorist organisation” or Taqfiris (excommunicators of fellow Muslims).
• Major General Qassem Soleimani played a significant role in anti-IS operations.

Islamic State: Background

• It is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh.
• It is a transnational Salafi (Sunni) jihadist group.
• It was founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and fought alongside Al-Qaeda during the Iraqi insurgency.
• ISIL aims to return to the early days of Islam, rejecting all innovations in the religion, which it believes corrupts its original spirit.
• ISIS is the self-acclaimed leader of jihadists, disregarding other groups, including Hamas.
• Aided by the Syrian civil war, it occupied large territories in Iraq and Syria in 2015.
• By 2019, it lost all its Middle Eastern territories and returned to insurgency tactics.

ISIS activities in India

• In early 2020, ISIS circulated an India-centric propaganda material called Voice of Hind.
• Intelligence agencies observed incidents of online recruitment through various channels.
• Incidences of radicalisation of Kashmiri youth by ISIS and sporadic protests were also observed.
• ISIS released an online poster justifying “retaliatory action” in the Wilayat e Hind, or the “Indian Province” of its supposed Caliphate.