In 2017, a group of senior Arab fighters travelled from Syria to Afghanistan, to cement the links between Islamic State cells in the two areas.

They arrived in an international village, where the jihadi families included a blond German husband and wife and French, Russian, Chinese Uyghur and central Asian families, according to a rare testimony by an Uzbek woman who was a member the group.

She spent nearly eight years as a fighter’s wife in eastern Nangarhar province under a web of international jihadi groups that have taken root in eastern and northern Afghanistan, shifting names and allegiances, but currently known as Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), a reference to the historical name for a cross-border region.

They were the group behind the bombing at Kabul airport, during the final days of the western evacuation mission, that killed at least 182 people. The 13 US military casualties made it one of the deadliest attacks of the 20-year war for Americans.