Kyrgyzstan arrests 15 alleged ISIS supporters

Kyrgyzstan on Friday said it had arrested 15 suspected supporters of ISIS – a growing concern in Central Asian countries following a March attack in Moscow claimed by the terrorist group.

“The state committee for national security has ended the activities of a clandestine radical group, whose members were actively promoting [ISIS] ideology,” the Kyrgyz security service said in a statement.

“In total, 15 people were arrested in the capital Bishkek and around the country,” the security service said, adding that “one of the leaders of the group was under the orders of a member of [ISIS] in Afghanistan,” known as Khorasan.

The ISIS offshoot has been classified by the United Nations as “the biggest terrorist threat in Afghanistan and Central Asia” and is one of the main security challenges for countries in Central Asia that border Afghanistan.

This concern has increased following a mass shooting attack claimed by Khorasan on March 22 in Moscow in which at least 144 people were killed – the biggest death toll in an attack in Russia since 2004.

After initially accusing Ukraine, Russian authorities in the end put the blame on the ISIS and arrested the Tajik suspects.

Kyrgyzstan is a secular country with a Muslim majority where there are frequent waves of arrests of extremists – particularly in the more religious south of the country.

In Afghanistan, the security situation has improved since the return of the Taliban to power in 2021. But some armed groups, including Khorasan, continue to claim attacks.