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The Islamic State (IS) has been blamed for three previously unknown arson attacks that targeted an electrical station and embassy vehicles in Dushanbe and Parkhar, Tajikistan, a country that shares 1,357 kilometers (or approximately 843 miles) of border with Afghanistan. In Dushanbe, on 12 September 2021, a diplomatic vehicle was set on fire near the French embassy and 14 days later, a vehicle of a local Shia was set on fire, which is a consistent target of IS. On 14 October 2021, an electrical transformer supplying power to military installations was set on fire taking out electricity to the local military registration and enlistment office at the border with Afghanistan in the Parkhar region of Tajikistan. It should be noted that Islamic State has been specifically targeting electrical towers in Afghanistan as a part of their "Economic Warfare" campaign over 2021. In each attack the perpetrators remain at large and the fact that two of the attacks were inside the capital of Dushanbe should be of concern as future fires should be expected. Given that November 2019 was last claim by IS in Tajikistan, combined with the fact that the tactic of arson has never been used by IS cells in Tajikistan, these fires should not be merely written off as Islamic State Khurasan's (ISK) cross-border attacks. TRAC has been witnessing new IS operations in areas with either zero activity by previous IS cells or has been dormant for quite some time, like Tajikistan. All of the new activity is an indication that Islamic State's external operations branch, better known as the Emni, is gearing up operations in late-2021. Since late September 2021, there have been reported IS cell movement in Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Kosovo and Poland. If the Emni is, in fact, behind all the recent activity, this Tajik arsonist cell would make the sixth external operation of which TRAC has become aware.
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