Islamic State faces uphill 'branding war' in Afghanistan, Pakistan

Islamic State has enticed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan to switch loyalty and has held a small swathe of territory in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where leader Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on July 26 by a U.S. drone, Washington confirmed on August 12.

But outside that pocket of territory, security officials and analysts say that Islamic State remains - for now - more of a "brand name" than a cohesive militant force in much of the region.

"Groups around the world want to jump on that bandwagon and cash in on their popularity and the fear they command," said a Pakistani police official based in Islamabad, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Anxiety over Islamic State - also known as ISIS or "Daesh" - in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been building since the al Qaeda breakaway movement seized portions of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and began promoting itself worldwide.

Those fears had gain fresh impetus in the last month after IS's self-declared "Khorasan province" in Afghanistan and Pakistan claimed two especially deadly bombings that each killed more than 70 people - one in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the latest in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta last week.

Yet Pakistani officials and independent analysts have raised doubt on the IS claims, especially for the Quetta bombing - saying the more credible claim for the suicide attack at a hospital was by a Pakistani Taliban offshoot, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

"ISIS is increasingly on the defensive as it struggles to defend its shrinking caliphate in Iraq and Syria, so it has a strong incentive to show it's still relevant by taking credit for something it didn't do," said Michael Kugelman, South Asia analyst for the Woodrow Wilson Center, a U.S.-based think tank.