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Burkina Faso: Army says 3 soldiers killed in combat with Islamic militants

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Three Burkina Faso soldiers died and 11 militants were killed during an attack on the troops in the north of the Sahel West African nation on Wednesday, the army said in a statement.

“The army detachment in Thiou, in the Yatenga Region was the target of an attack by armed individuals. Eleven terrorists were neutralised. However, three soldiers fell during combat and dozens were wounded,” the army said in the statement.

The attack is the latest of three since Nov. 14 that have killed over 60 Burkina Faso security forces and over a dozen civilians, sparking nationwide anger and protests, with calls for President Roch Marc Kabore to resign.

Opponents urged fresh protests on Saturday against the government’s inability to contain a four-year insurgency by militants linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State which has killed thousands and displaced over a million.

Some of the anger spilled over last week and was directed against former colonial power France, which has deployed thousands of soldiers in the West Africa Sahel region to combat the militants.

Hundreds of people in the city of Kaya massed over the weekend to block a convoy of French logistics and armoured vehicles on its way to neighbouring Niger. The convoy has still not been able to leave Burkina Faso.

The government on Wednesday implored the population to let the convoy pass. It also extended its suspension of mobile internet service while offering conflicting reasons for why access was cut in the first place.

Internet access went out on Saturday in the wake of protests against the government and French military forces.

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Human Rights Watch: Iran-backed Houthi rebels ‘indiscriminately’ fired on Yemen civilians

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Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired into the Marib governorate, killing and displacing civilians, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday according to upi.com.

The New York-based human rights organization said the rebel group has “fired artillery and ballistic missiles indiscriminately into populated areas” of Marib since September as part of the fighting between Houthi forces and the Yemeni government, killing civilians including women and children.

“Civilians and displaced people in Marib have been caught in the crosshairs for nearly two years, some suffering severe deprivation,” said Afrah Nasser, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Houthis’ repeated indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and blocking humanitarian aid have become a shameful pattern and add to the group’s dismal human rights record.”

Human Rights Watch said October was the deadliest month in Marib in years as more than 100 civilians including children were killed or wounded, adding that witnesses said Houthi forces besieged 35,000 inhabitants of al-Abdiyah for at least three weeks, blocking civilians from leaving or entering and denying entry to food, fuel and other commodities.

Multiple international aid agencies on Nov. 3 expressed concern over the humanitarian situation as an aid worker with the Yemeni government’s Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons Camps said thousands of families are still trapped in Marib as Houthi forces block roads, restrict transportation and attack fleeing civilians.

“Humanitarian needs in Marib city far outstrip current humanitarian capacity on the ground. The city hosts hugely crowded IDP camps, an over-stretched public service and healthcare system, fragile city infrastructure and an increasingly vulnerable host community,” they wrote.

On Tuesday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to secure the release of U.S. embassy staff detained in Yemen.

“The Houthis’ actions are a clear violation of international law and basic principles of human rights,” they wrote. “We must respond robustly to these provocations to prevent such abuses in the future.”

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Somalia: Isamist Al-Shabab blast by school in Mogadishu kills at least 8

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A large explosion outside a school in Somalia’s capital on Thursday killed at least eight people, including students, witnesses said. The extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, like reported by kob.com.

The al-Qaida-linked group controls large parts of rural Somalia and continues to frustrate efforts at rebuilding the Horn of Africa nation after three decades of conflict.

The blast sent a plume of smoke above a busy part of Mogadishu during the morning rush hour. The blast shredded part of the school, with emergency workers looking through the collapsed roof beams and wooden benches.

“We were extremely terrified by the blast,” said teacher Mohamed Osman, who said he was explaining a lesson to students when the explosion occurred. “We were disorientated and we were covered with dust and smoke.”

Police spokesman Abdifatah Adam Hassan said eight people were killed and 17 others wounded.

“This is a tragedy,” said Abdulkadir Adan of the Amin ambulance service, which rushed people to a hospital.

The casualties were fewer than might have occurred since Thursday is part of the weekend in Somalia, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

Al-Shabab in a statement carried by its Andalus radio said it targeted Western officials being escorted by the African Union peacekeeping convoy. But a witness, Hassan Ali, told the AP that a private security company was escorting the officials and said he saw four of the security personnel wounded.

The attack occurred as Somalia faces major questions about its political and security future. The AU peacekeeping force was meant to withdraw from the country, but its mission could be extended amid concerns that Somali forces are not ready to assume responsibility for security. The U.S. early this year said its troop withdrawal from Somalia was complete.

A long-delayed presidential vote was meant to take place in February but now looks set to be held next year.

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Iran and Hezbollah in Colombia (and South America)

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In late June, Colombian authorities neutralized a possible Iranian-backed assassination plot in Bogota that could have killed two Israeli businessmen on Colombian territory. The plot, which began to unravel in April, involved an Iranian operative, Rahmat Asadi, who allegedly recruited two Colombian cutouts to carry out the operation, like reported by meforum.org.

Thankfully, the assassination plot was thwarted, but it shows that the long arm of Iranian terror reaches Colombia.

Colombia’s swift action, in this case, has even more significance after Israel recently foiled a series of similar assassination plots in at least three countries in Africa and another in Cyprus, against Israeli businessmen and tourists. This is part of a foreign assassination campaign led by the infamous Qods Force, the elite arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is attempting to avenge the death of Iran’s nuclear program chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed in December 2020, and just one of many international covert terrorist operations that Iran carries out on a regular basis.

In a recent interview while on a visit to Israel, Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said that Iran and Hezbollah are “common enemies” of the two governments. This caused a diplomatic spat back in Bogota, especially after President Ivan Duque said that Colombia does not use the term “enemy” when referring to other nation-states, and highlighted Colombia’s long-standing diplomatic relationship with Iran dating back more than 45 years.

While it is true that Colombia has had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1975, they froze relations shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution that turned the Middle Eastern country into the theocratic regime it remains today. Colombia did not restart relations until 1992, and since then Iran has had a lukewarm relationship with Bogota at best. This context was lost in recent commentary by some Colombian pundits and politicians who refer to Iran as a normal democratic nation looking to engage in trade and diplomacy with the country — instead of as an Islamist revolutionary regime that uses terrorism as part of its foreign policy.

That sobering lesson was learned in Latin America in 1994, with the brutal car bombing of the AMIA cultural center in Argentina that killed 85 people. Among the many things that Argentine intelligence officials discovered when investigating the AMIA attack is how Iran used its embassy in Buenos Aires to set up a dual-use commercial network of beef refrigeration plants that served as a terror finance mechanism for Hezbollah to carry out the largest Islamist terrorist attack in Latin America’s history.

Instead of enjoying a preferential trade relationship with one of the best exporters of beef in the world, Iran in the 1990s decided to exploit that relationship, and the Argentine people paid the ultimate price for its government miscalculating Iran’s nature and intent.

Today, the Iranian regime is even more global, more nefarious, and has many more weapons at their disposal. Among the most potent is disinformation.

Since January 2020, Tehran has been spreading a global disinformation campaign to rebrand the image of the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism by using the symbol of the late Qods Force commander, General Qasem Soleimani. The death of Soleimani was a major setback for Iran, but in addition to reacting with force, the regime also responded with disinformation. They also named a surface-to-surface ballistic missile after him, the Martyr Hajj Qasem missile, and created a new non-profit organization with his name in Colombia.

In December 2020, a new book called Mi Tio Soleimani (“My Uncle Soleimani”) was published in Spanish and launched alongside a new Iran-supported Shi’a cultural center in Colombia called the ONG Shahid Soleimani, the same name Iran gave to the retaliatory strike against American targets in Iraq as an act of revenge for the US killing its terrorist leader. Essentially, the Iran-supported Shi’a cultural center in Bogota is trying to insert the symbol of a terrorist as if he had been a peacemaker, portraying Soleimani as sort of an Iranian Che Guevara, who was also not a peacemaker in Latin America.

More recently, in May 2021, Iran sympathizers amplified the #Soleimani hashtag in Colombia by connecting it to the national protests throughout the country. On May 2, in the midst of the Colombian protests, a Spanish account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei kicked off the disinformation campaign in Colombia with a tweet calling Soleimani a “martyr.” After that, within three weeks, the #Soleimani hashtag was used in Colombia more than 8,000 times, tying it to more popular hashtags such as #NosEstanMasacrando, in a blatant attempt to capitalize on the protests to portray Soleimani as a figure who fought against injustice.

Some Colombians think disinformation is not enough to consider Iran an “enemy.” After all, Colombia has more direct threats coming from its historic, well-known enemies, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-D) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

It is worth remembering that the files recovered in October 2020 by the Colombian military from the computers of the killed ELN commander known as “Uriel” revealed audio recordings claiming that Iran “is very open” to the idea of providing all-expense-paid trips for ELN fighters to travel to Iran and receive training. On July 29, the Colombian military captured another computer, this time of the FARC leader known as “Gentil Duarte,” and discovered communications from last December stating that the group had established “diplomatic” relations with Iran.

FARC and Hezbollah have a long history of collaboration dating back to the AMIA bombing, when a Colombian-born senior Hezbollah operative, Salman Raouf Salman, worked with FARC to smuggle explosives from Lebanon to the Tri-Border Area to use in the attack in Argentina. More recently, in May 2020, the US Justice Department indicted a Syrian-Venezuelan dual national for working with Hezbollah to set up a cocaine-for-arms scheme that, in 2014, allegedly brought a cargo plane full of rocket-propelled grenades, AK-103s, sniper rifles and other small arms from Lebanon to Venezuela for delivery to FARC.

For most Latin Americans, Iran and Hezbollah are distant actors that operate in a foreign land far from the local concerns in Latin America of crime, insecurity, and corruption. But it is precisely these concerns that should make Colombians worried that Iran and Hezbollah are active in their country and on its border.

Crime and corruption are the bread and butter of how Iran and Hezbollah have gained a strategic advantage in the Middle East. Look no further than Lebanon and its raging economic crisis to see how Hezbollah exacerbated crime and corruption to gain control over the government. Or in Yemen, where rampant corruption led to a surge by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who recently stormed the US Embassy in San’a to take hostages.

Part of the process of evaluating whether Iran and Hezbollah are enemies is to recognize how these actors operate around the world and then educate the public as to what they are doing in your country. In doing so, rather than creating an “enemy,” you are helping your country to be more aware of one of the largest threats worldwide to stability and peace.

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The Taliban’s “big rebrand”

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Now the de facto government of Afghanistan, the Taliban is trying to solidify its rule by going through a bit of a rebrand, a topic that the corporate media has covered acutely. The Taliban seems to believe this series of rhetorical overtures to the West is important for gaining international recognition. More important, however, is the Taliban’s attempt to domestically rebrand itself, hoping to legitimize its regained authority to Afghans of different ethnic and religious stripes in various regions of the country, like reported by theamericanconservative.com.

Shocking as it may be for an American audience to hear, especially after the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan lasted 20 years and plenty in the foreign policy establishment were just fine prolonging the conflict another year (or five, or 10), the Taliban has bigger concerns than seeming moderate to gain approval with western media and governments. The Taliban has been attempting to undercut ISIS-K’s ability to recruit new fighters and garner public support by negotiating with Salafi imams who pledge their allegiance to the Taliban. While the Taliban has rebuffed claims that ISIS-K poses a substantial security threat or could challenge Taliban rule, which is true given the relatively limited number of ISIS-K fighters and capabilities, ISIS-K still presents a security challenge for the Taliban, especially in the Eastern regions of Afghanistan, where there are large Salafist populations.

The Taliban’s efforts to rebrand itself domestically began before the Taliban became the de facto government of Afghanistan in late summer of this year. In March 2020, the Afghan Salafist Council, led by its emir, Shaikh Abdul Aziz Nooristani, met with Taliban leaders and swore their allegiance to Shaikh Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s leader. A roughly 20 minute video of the meeting, later released by al-Emarah studio, the Taliban’s media wing, under the title “Pledge of Allegiance of Salafi Ulama,” claimed that Nooristani, along with 32 Afghan Salafist ulema and officers, were loyal to the Taliban’s Emirate. They also asked the Taliban to recuse them from their war against ISIS-K, which they do not support because they believe their brutality goes against Islamic teachings, although ISIS-K was founded by Afghan Salafists and Taliban defectors. The Salafists even went on to claim that ISIS-K’s war against the Taliban is “an international conspiracy of the Jews and Crusaders.”

Prior to the meeting, the Taliban had already defeated ISIS-K fighters in skirmishes in the Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, and in late February the Taliban signed the Doha Agreement with the United States. These events bolstered the Taliban’s position in their negotiations with the Afghan Salafist Council. The Doha Agreement made it clear that the Taliban would remain after the United States’ departure, something of which the Taliban was eager to remind the Afghan Salafist Council. While the two have disagreements, both practical and theological, the Taliban told the Salafists that supporting them is the clear and only choice, and promised the Salafists that all sects of Islam would be free to practice in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, something easier for the Taliban to commit to in theory than in practice.

Then, it seemed clear to both the Taliban and the Afghan Salafist Council that the Taliban would once again come to control Afghanistan, or at least vast parts of it, after the United States withdrew. This was as members of the foreign policy establishment were claiming that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the Afghan Security Forces trained to protect it, would not collapse without the United States. Of course, America’s expert class would proceed to revise that estimate to a year, then six months, then three, and so on—only for the U.S. backed Afghan government to fall in a span of 72 hours.

However, since the Taliban took Kabul and became the country’s governing force, not all has gone according to the plan laid out in the March 2020 meeting between the Salafists and the Taliban. In nearly 20 provinces, the Taliban has shuttered the doors on more than three dozen Salafist mosques and seminaries. The Taliban has also waged a campaign against some of Afghanistan’s most influential Salafists throughout the country, claiming they are connected to ISIS-K. However, many of the Salafist intellectuals now under threat have previously condemned ISIS-K throughout its existence, censuring everything from its pledge of fealty to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to its brutality against civilians.

The Taliban also reportedly abducted Shaikh Abu Obaidullah Mutawakil, a prominent Salafist scholar, from his residence in Kabul on Aug. 28, for alleged connections to ISIS-K. Mutawakil was found to be brutally murdered one week later. It’s worth noting that, at one point, the Afghan government did take Mutawakil into custody for their own suspicions of ties to ISIS-K; however, ISIS-K allegedly offered no prayers for Mutawakil upon his death because of his stance against the ISIS caliphate.

A Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, denied the Taliban’s involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Mutawakil. While his tweet did not offer any condemnation of the killing, Mujahid claimed the Taliban would perform an investigation surrounding his disappearance and later death. Mutawakil’s family, meanwhile, maintains that it was Taliban fighters who abducted him.

Taliban fighters spread throughout various localities have allegedly attempted to arrest even more Salafist scholars, but many went into hiding after Mutawakil was abducted, such as Abdul Zahir Daee, Ustad Maroof Rasikh, Shaikh Ahmad Shah, and Shaikh Sardar Wali. Whether or not these abductions were ordered by the Taliban’s top brass, or were carried out by local Taliban fighters acting on their own accord, we may never know.

However, the totality of the circumstances suggest that the Taliban has indeed violated its promises to the Salafists. To discourage Afghans from joining or supporting ISIS-K and maintain their territorial control over Afghanistan—especially in the Salafist-dense east—it seems the Taliban is opting to take a dual track of cooperation and repression against the Salafists. But their strategy seems to be leading to confusion, rather than making it clear the Taliban will tolerate Salafism, but remain intolerant of ISIS-K.

If they refuse to change their strategy, and make further attempts to keep the promises made to the Salafists, the Taliban could risk losing what they’ve waited 20 years to regain.

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Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists establish base in Niger border

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Niger State Government has confirmed the presence of the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists, a splinter of Boko Haram, in Babana community along Kainji National Park, Borgu Local Council of the state. Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, disclosed this while briefing journalists in his office in Minna, like reported by guardian.ng.

Matane said that the group had made audio recording, which was in circulation, claiming they were not terrorists or bandits but religious organisation poised to establish caliphate that would handle issues of criminality.

The SSG explained that it was the same group that kidnapped the District Head of Wawa, the Dodo of Wawa. He also said that the group had complained that they were aware of security surveillance within the border area.

Matane further revealed that another group in Shiroro Local Council of the state had resemblance of Boko Haram and ISWAP.

According to him, the group has been preaching that government is irresponsible and brainwashing youths like what they are doing in Sambisa Forest.

In another development, the British High Commission has promised to prioritise its activities in Benue State, most particularly in areas of enthroning peace and security among the people.

British High Commissioner in charge of Governance and Security, Mr. Samuel Waldock, made the pledge, yesterday, during a courtesy visit to Governor Samuel Ortom at the Government House, Makurdi.

Waldock maintained that having keenly observed the security challenges faced by the Benue State government, the High Commission became concerned to know how the state is managing the situation for necessary intervention.

The governor, in his speech, said his administration had made efforts to consolidate on partnership for development of the state with special focus on good governance, security of life and property, promotion of agricultural development, adherence and respect for the rule of law as well as effective collaboration and partnership based on fairness, equity and justice.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to vigorously pursue the processes for immediate implementation of reform strategy for national security architecture with a view to providing enhanced institutions for effective service delivery.

Malami stated this when he received members of the Presidential Implementation/Advisory Committee for the Implementation of the Recommendations of the Reform Committee on Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces of Nigeria.

A statement by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Abuja, yesterday, emphasised the need for a robust legal and legislative framework, effective inter-ministerial support and up-to-date training as well as enhanced capacity building approaches.

Malami assured the committee of the Federal Government’s determination to have the military and security institutions carry out their duties in the ever-changing and complex society and in compliance with international best practices.

He also assured the committee of determination to provide the desired support, collaboration and co-operation in providing the legal framework for efficient and effective achievements of their goals.

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Iran-backed Hezbollah gets terrorist designation in Australia

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Australia announced Wednesday it intends to add the Lebanese group Hezbollah to its list of outlawed terrorist organizations, alongside the far-right extremist group The Base.

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thanked Canberra for its announcement, saying on Twitter that the Iran-backed group is “responsible for countless attacks in Israel & around the world.”

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid added in a statement Australia is a close friend of Israel, “also in the international struggle against terrorism.”

Hezbollah’s External Security Organization was designated a terrorist organization under Australia’s Criminal Code in 2003. Including all Hezbollah entities as terrorist organizations would make being a member of or supporting those entities a criminal offense.

The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Bahrain also recently designation Hezollah a terrorist group.

The Base, a neo-Nazi white supremacist group formed in the United States in 2018, would become only the second far-right group to be designated a terrorist organization in Australia after the British-based Sonnenkrieg Division was listed in August, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said on Wednesday.

The remaining 25 terrorist organizations on Australia’s list are Muslim groups.

Andrews said terrorist organizations were watching as Australia lifted border and pandemic restrictions while allowing its vaccinated citizens to present themselves as potential targets by gathering in greater numbers.

“We know there is a threat of terrorism here in Australia and that there is a threat of terrorism right across the world,” Andrews said. “We have recently witnessed that in both the United Kingdom and in New Zealand.”

She was referring to Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 worshipers at two New Zealand mosques in 2019.

The following year, a major report found New Zealand’s intelligence agencies had been far too focused on the threat posed by Islamic extremism at the expense of other threats.

Andrews said listing The Base — which is active in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia — and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations brought Australia into line with international partners including the U.S., Canada and Britain.

She said her decision to list the two organizations was not taken lightly. The threats posed by both groups are real and credible, she said.

She described the numbers of Hezbollah and The Base supporters in Australia as “fluid.”

“I have sufficient information in front of me to be concerned and to understand that The Base meets the threshold for listing as a terrorist organization,” Andrews said.

“We are aware of their activities within Australia and overseas, and we will continue to monitor them and their activities. We will look closely at their membership and we will take action once they are fully listed under the Criminal Code,” she added.

Andrews wrote to state and territory governments to consult on the two proposed listings. She said she aimed to finalize the listings as soon as possible.

Lebanese Ambassador to Australia Milad Raad was not immediately available for comment.

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Iran-backed Hezbollah smuggling weapons to Arab Israelis to sow clashes between Jews and Arabs

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The Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group is trying to smuggle weapons into Israel for use by the Arab Israeli community in future clashes, a police official has said according to toi.com.

The Israel Police have noticed a significant increase in efforts to smuggle weapons into the country via the Lebanese and Jordanian borders in the months since a May conflict with the Gaza Strip that was accompanied by some of the most severe rioting in decades between the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel, Channel 12 reported Monday.

There has been a several-fold jump in smuggling and a marked improvement in the quality of the weapons being sent, in what police described as a “strategic threat” to the country, according to the report.

Police say the weapons’ intended destination is crime organizations in the Arab community, where they would also be available for terror attacks in the event of another surge in violence between Jews and Arabs.

The head of the northern district police intelligence department, Chief Superintendent Yaron Ben-Yishi, told the network that 95 percent of the smuggling from Lebanon is directed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Ben-Yishi said that whereas in the past Hezbollah tried to push drugs into Israel to “poison our young people,” the terror group has now switched tactics to focus on weapons smuggling instead in preparation for an expected “doomsday.”

During May’s clashes “they saw the sensitivity surrounding the Temple Mount [in Jerusalem] and they know that on the day that things explode, Arab Israelis will have enough weapons to use them for their [Hezbollah’s] hostile terror activities,” he said.

In July Israeli troops intercepted what was reportedly the largest attempt in recent years to smuggle weapons across the border from Lebanon.

Since the start of the year, northern district police officers have seized 140 pistols and 20 assault rifles but estimate that many more weapons were successfully brought into the country, Channel 12 reported in a preview of a more in-depth investigation to be broadcast Tuesday.

On Sunday, an Israeli man was shot dead and four others injured in a terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem carried out by a Palestinian gunman. The shooter, an East Jerusalem resident identified as a member of the Hamas terror group, was armed with a submachine gun manufactured by Italian firearms producer Beretta, a significantly better quality weapon than the guns produced locally in West Bank workshops.

Arab communities have seen a surge in violence in recent years, driven mainly, but not only, by organized crime.

On Monday a school principal was shot and injured in the northern Arab Israeli city of Arraba.

Since the beginning of 2021, at least 111 Arabs were killed in suspected homicides, according to the Abraham Initiatives nonprofit. Of them, 93 were Arab citizens of Israel and another 18 were Palestinians, either from East Jerusalem or with Israeli residency.

Arab Israelis blame police, who they say have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women. The community has also suffered from decades of neglect.

In October, the cabinet passed a plan to allocate NIS 2.5 billion ($750 million) over the next five years to fight the wave of criminal activity in Arab communities.

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Mozambique Army kills 12 Islamic insurgents in Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique Defence and Security Forces (FDS) killed 12 insurgents in Cabo Delgado province, the country’s newly appointed Defence Minister said on Friday.

Mr Cristóvão Chume, a former head of the Mozambican army, disclosed this during the closing ceremony of a military course in Maputo. He said that several weapons were recovered from the insurgents. Mr Chume said: This morning I was informed that in Nangade, our forces met with the enemy, they killed 12 insurgents, wounded several others and recovered some weapons.

According to Mr Chume the joint forces, made up of the FDS and the contingents of the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and the Rwanda army are pursuing the insurgents.

Last month, the Extraordinary Summit of the Organ Troika of the Heads of State and Government of SADC plus Mozambique held in South Africa approved the SAMIM extension. SAMIM was deployed in July and was supposed to last 90 days.

Mr Chume also acknowledged that there were sporadic attacks in villages across the oil-rich Cabo Delgado province.

Mozambique has been fighting an insurgency in Cabo Delgado Province since 2017 and over 3 000 people have died in the violence while more than 800 000 people have been displaced.

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Taliban sends hundreds of fighters to eastern Afghanistan to wage war against Islamic State

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The Taliban has expanded its shadowy war against the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, deploying hundreds more fighters to this eastern province in an increasingly violent fight and critical test of the group’s counterterrorism abilities after the U.S. troop withdrawal, like reported by stripes.com.

More than 1,300 additional Taliban fighters have been deployed to Nangahar province in the past month with orders to increase the tempo of operations, according to Taliban security officials. Taliban night raids against suspected Islamic State-Khorasan members are on the rise, and many of the hundreds arrested have disappeared or turned up dead, according to Jalalabad residents and Taliban fighters.

“The fight is difficult, and yes sometimes it is brutal, but we have to eradicate Daesh not just for Afghanistan, but for the entire world,” said Qari Nurullah Fateh, a Taliban fighter under the group’s intelligence wing in Jalalabad. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State commonly used in Afghanistan. “If someone doesn’t surrender to us, we kill them.”

Fateh’s unit carries out multiple search operations for Islamic State suspects in Jalalabad most nights from sunset until early morning prayers. Previously, the fighters would only leave base once or twice a week. Fateh estimated that seven to 10 Islamic State suspects are arrested in Jalalabad every week and about six are killed.

The Taliban crackdown has sent shock waves through the province and is emerging in Islamic State recruitment propaganda calling on Nangahar residents to rise up and resist. It is unclear how many new fighters have joined the Islamic State’s ranks, but since the Taliban takeover the group has strengthened, become more active and expanded its presence to nearly every Afghan province, according to United Nations assessments.

The wave of Islamic State attacks here and across Afghanistan is the first sustained challenge to the Taliban’s grip on security since the group took control of the country in August. But the escalating fight in Nangahar risks overstretching limited Taliban resources and further alienating many Afghans.

The Islamic State began attacking Jalalabad within weeks of the Taliban takeover. Local Taliban commanders initially responded by killing several accused collaborators and hanging their bodies along main roads and at busy intersections.

“This was a very effective way to respond,” said Fateh, the Taliban fighter in Jalalabad. “It was a lesson to the people that this is what happens if you join Daesh. We wanted to show them the consequences.” Two other elite Taliban fighters confirmed Fateh’s account.

“Myself, I strung up two of the bodies,” Fateh said, estimating other Taliban fighters hung about 40 more. Dozens of accused collaborators were beheaded. He said the punishments were carried out in accordance with Islamic law and were approved by Taliban provincial leadership.

But since the brutal killings, violence has only increased, according to data collected by local health officials. And some Jalalabad residents and former Afghan government officials warn that the Taliban’s approach to restoring order will fan Islamic State recruitment efforts.

Community leaders in Nangahar have pleaded for the Taliban to end the killings, warning “otherwise we cannot stop our youth from joining the [Islamic State] and the beginning of a very brutal era,” said Abdul Sayed, a London-based researcher of extremist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, citing statements released via public WhatsApp groups.

At a recent news conference, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid downplayed the threat, saying the Islamic State does not have any support among Afghans and the group has “largely been dealt with.”

But Khalil Hamraz, the spokesman for the Taliban’s directorate of intelligence, acknowledged at the same conference that the Taliban’s military takeover of the country inadvertently bolstered Islamic State ranks. Taliban attacks on prisons across the country freed jailed Islamic State members who now threaten security in Afghanistan, he said.

“During the victory of the Islamic Emirate, many Daesh prisoners unfortunately managed to escape,” he said, but in the months since, Taliban fighters have arrested about 600 Islamic State suspects and defused deadly explosives.

Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan are estimated to number between 2,000 and 3,500 – just a fraction of the approximately 70,000 fighters in the Taliban’s ranks.

The Taliban has engaged in battles with the Islamic State for years. In 2019, Taliban fighters helped clear much of Nangahar of Islamic State-held territory, in parallel with a massive U.S.-led operation in which the United States closely supported Afghan government forces with waves of airstrikes. U.S. officials said they did not partner with the Taliban but said Taliban-led offensives on the ground against the Islamic State were critical to its success.

Islamic State attacks across Afghanistan sharply declined the following year, but U.S. officials warned that the group could easily regroup if counterterrorism pressure isn’t applied after the U.S. withdrawal.

Orders to kill

Even with specialized equipment and elite counterterrorism units, U.S.-backed Afghan government forces struggled for years to control Nangahar. Home to formidable terrain, profitable smuggling routes and mineral deposits close to Kabul, the province is key real estate for militant groups looking to move fighters and munitions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“These Taliban fighters are not familiar with the province, and they have no way to check the intelligence they receive about [Islamic State] targets,” said a Jalalabad resident and former civil society activist, who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. “So they just go after anyone they suspect, kill them and say that person was Daesh.”

He said he knows dozens of families whose homes were raided and who cannot find their loved ones. Those who are imprisoned by the Taliban and released, he said, often endured days of torture.

Fateh, the Taliban fighter assigned to the group’s intelligence wing in Jalalabad, said the top Taliban intelligence commander for Nangahar, Mohammad Bashir, signs off on all targets before a raid is launched and has the final say in all sentences delivered to captured suspects.

“Dr. Bashir tells us Daesh is like a virus that will not just infect Afghanistan, but other countries.” Fateh said, referring to the 45-year-old commander. “So the less dangerous people we bring to prison, but the most dangerous are the ones we have orders to kill on the spot.”

Bashir declined multiple interview requests. Bilal Karimi, a deputy Taliban spokesman, would not comment on whether a Taliban court has ruled that accused Islamic State members should be hung in public or beheaded.

“However, I can say many of the [Islamic State] members have been killed in armed clashes,” he said.

Most suspects detained for trial are brought to Jalalabad’s intelligence compound, Fateh said. If they are sentenced to death, they are executed and their bodies are dumped in the street outside the building, he said. In other cases, accused Islamic State members are walked into an open field on Jalalabad’s outskirts and shot.

“We always inform the neighborhood elder so they can tell the family where to collect the body for burial,” he said. “We never desecrate the dead. That is wrong. It’s against Islam.”

Violence spikes

Muhammad Tahir Mubaris, who commands a Taliban unit that was recently moved from Ghazni to Jalalabad, said extensive networks of Taliban informants will ultimately help the group achieve what the United States couldn’t: the complete defeat the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

“It’s because the people trust us. Daesh has no support here,” he said, leading a patrol convoy through central Jalalabad traffic on a recent day this month. Unlike the United States, he said, Taliban raids don’t alienate local populations.

“We saw how the Americans conducted night raids. It showed us the wrong way to fight,” he said, referring to U.S.-backed operations that drew criticism from human rights groups. “We don’t just break into a house and destroy everything. This is our country; we respect the culture.”

The approach does not appear to be working. While the Taliban’s military takeover ended decades of war for most of Afghanistan, violence in Nangahar has escalated with near-daily attacks claimed by the Islamic State. And some Jalalabad residents describe the Taliban raids as more brutal than those carried out by the United States and its Afghan allies.

Few Taliban fighters are trained or have experience conducting precision operations in urban areas. After more than two decades of fighting a guerrilla war, the force is still adjusting to maintaining security during peacetime. Exponentially increasing the number of operations without also expanding intelligence capabilities raises the risk that civilians will be mistaken for Islamic State members.

Already, the number of civilians caught in the crossfire has surged in Nangahar. Across the province, twice as many people were killed and injured by roadside bombs, clashes and targeted killings compared to the month before the government fell, according to a senior member of the provincial health department. And in Jalalabad, the central hospital admitted more casualties of war in October than any other month this year, according to two senior doctors there.

“I can’t remember the last time the numbers of war wounded were this high,” said one of the doctors at Jalalabad’s main hospital who has worked in the city’s health sector for years.

Outside his office, the courtyard was full of dozens of families and groups of Taliban members waiting for news of relatives and comrades inside.

Thick metal pins poked out of a white gauze wrapping around Gulzada Osman’s right leg. This month he was knocked off his feet and sprayed with shrapnel after a passing Taliban pickup truck rolled over a roadside bomb not far from his home.

Taliban fighters responded with gunfire, he said. After suffering only minor injuries from the blast, Osman was then shot through his thigh. “My leg felt like it was burning, but when I looked down I just saw blood everywhere,” he said.

The explosive was probably placed by an Islamic State fighter or by someone paid by the group to target the Taliban, according to former local officials and analysts. Unlike recent bombings claimed by the militants elsewhere in Afghanistan, in Nangahar, Islamic State attacks are smaller in scale: roadside bombs targeting Taliban convoys and drive-by shootings of Taliban fighters stationed at checkpoints.

Islamic State attacks are expected to rise as the Taliban ramps up operations in Nangahar, according to the former Afghan security officials.

“The people are more than upset,” said one of the former officials of rising violence and civilian casualties. “Before the government collapse many thought the Taliban could be a better way. But if the fight continues like this, there will be a wave of people joining Daesh.”

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