Homegrown militants loyal to the Islamic State group are making inroads into Afghanistan, controlling territory in some parts of the country and ruling with the harsh hand the group is notorious for in Iraq and Syria, according to officials, military leaders and analysts.
IS expansion into Afghanistan has been a concern for both Afghan and international authorities for months, with officials warning that the militant group was actively recruiting members from other Islamic militant groups, including the rival Taliban.
Now multiple local and international officials say IS loyalists have increased their visibility and in some parts of the country are violently confronting the Taliban which is still waging its own 14-year-old insurgency to retake power in Kabul.
There remains some confusion as to whether the growing visibility of the now-familiar IS black flag in Afghanistan constitutes the presence of an actual Islamic State group affiliate.
Authorities have yet to confirm the existence of operational or financial links between the local IS loyalists and the militant group's home base in Iraq and Syria. However, the number of local militants flying the IS flag or claiming to be acting in the group's name has increased dramatically.
Some of these are believed to be former Taliban fighters who have broken with the organization and adopted the IS flag out of convenience. But at the very least, authorities say recent events reveal the growing presence and power of factions who emulate the Islamic State group's ideals and seek to mimic its tactics.
In some parts of the country, the extremists have actually begun controlling territory - executing Taliban loyalists, banning girls from school and killing dozens of civilians for resisting their harsh rule, according to Afghan officials.
On Thursday, U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, called IS an "emergent threat" which now occupies "pockets in numerous places around the nation."
He said that while IS loyalists were fighting the Taliban in some regions, their "combat power is less concerning than that they are here making inroads with the people, recruiting."
One of the first serious footholds in Afghanistan for the IS loyalists appears to be in the eastern province of Nangarhar, along the Pakistani border, according to two members of the Afghan parliament.
