That may sound odd, given that the Taliban have imposed their own, extreme version of Shariah, banning women from jobs or even a proper education, as well as reintroducing punishments such as stoning to death. Yet the Taliban and IS are bitter rivals – and after 20 years as insurgents, the Taliban are now finding themselves the poachers turned gamekeepers.
When IS had a physical base – its caliphate in Syria and Iraq – it was able to attract recruits who found it easy to fly to Turkey, catch a bus to the border and then get smuggled across into Syria.
These recruits mostly lacked both military experience or any real understanding of the civil war that was tearing Syria apart. Many had a background of petty crime and drug-taking back home. These included four men from West London, nicknamed The Beatles by their captives, who ended up guarding and torturing Western aid workers and journalists.
Today one is dead and the others are in prison, including two now serving life sentences in a US supermax jail.
But IS is still inciting attacks via its online media. Its two principal causes right now are calls for revenge for Israel’s nine-month long assault on Gaza and the imprisonment of IS women and children in grim, flyblown camps in northern Syria.
