The Taliban is urging India to stop giving lethal military equipment to the Afghan government, condemning it as a “clear hostility” towards the war-torn nation.

In its first public reaction to New Delhi’s growing military cooperation with Kabul, the Islamist insurgency alleged Indian aircraft and equipment are being used to kill Afghans and destroy their homes as well as other civilian infrastructure.

“The Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] condemns this action with the strongest of terms,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, the main spokesman for the Taliban, in a statement issued Sunday.

Attack helicopters provided

India recently transferred four Russian-made Mi-25 attack helicopters to boost the Afghan Air Force’s ability to assist ground troops fighting Taliban insurgents, and it trains hundreds of Afghan soldiers each year in its military academy.

“We call on India to stop exporting items of killing and destruction to Afghanistan and to stop efforts of prolonging the lifespan of this corrupt regime with its military aid,” Mujahid added.

He accused Afghan forces of using Indian attack helicopters to destroy a key bridge during recent fighting in the volatile northern Kunduz province.

“This cannot be interpreted as anything other than enmity with the Afghans and shall arouse hatred of the people of Afghanistan,” asserted the Taliban spokesman.

Call for more assistance

Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson traveled to New Delhi last month to urge Indian officials there to enhance military aid to Kabul.

“I know that they [Afghan authorities] have asked for more of these helicopters. There is an immediate need for more. When these aircraft come in, they immediately get into the fight,” Nicholson told reporters during his August 10 visit.

Pakistan military’s intelligence agency

U.S., Afghan and Indian officials allege the Pakistan military’s intelligence agency covertly supports the Taliban insurgency and allows it use sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to plot attacks in Afghanistan, charges Islamabad rejects.

Afghan army chief General Quadam Shah Shahim visited India last week to seek enhanced bilateral defense ties besides asking for more military equipment, particularly Mi-25 helicopters.

India has contributed $2 billion in economic assistance for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban from power in 2001.

voanews.com

Kunar provincial governor Wahidullah Kalimzai said on Saturday nearly 300 Daesh militants are promoting the group in the province in order to strengthen their numbers

According to Kalimzai those who recently joined Daesh and returned to Kunar are now recruiting for the terror organization.

Kalimzai said that a number of Kunar residents traveled to Nangarhar province to sign up and that they have now returned to Kunar province.

“According to our information nearly 300 Daesh militants are conducting propaganda (campaigns) and recruiting people but so far no armed Daesh militants have been seen in Kunar,” Kalimzai said.

Provincial Police Chief Jumagul Hemat assures the people that security forces will not let Daesh militants make safe havens in Kunar province.

“I believe that Kunar residents and tribal elders are opposed to Daesh militants and their opposition will cause that Daesh militants will not have safe havens in Kunar province and if the Daesh militants start any activity, they will face the response of security forces,” Hemat said.

Reports indicate that Daesh are active in six districts of Kunar and recently started training in the province.

“We warn Daesh militants that if they start destructive activities in Kunar province they will face residents’ strict response and they will be eliminated in the province,” said Hamidullah a resident.

After Daesh militants suffered heavy casualties in Afghan air strikes in Nangarhar the group now appears to have started activities in Kunar and Nuristan provinces.

tolonews.com

At least 13 people have been killed and 54 others injured after suicide bomb and gun attacks in northwestern Pakistan.

A suicide bomber shot his way through the main gate leading to the district court in the city of Mardan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, before throwing a hand grenade and detonating his suicide vest among the morning crowds.

Some of the wounded are in a critical condition, police said.

Rescue official Haris Habib said: “So far we recovered 12 bodies of the lawyers, police personnel and civilians.

Also on Friday, a group of militants belonging to stormed a Christian neighbourhood near Warsak Dam, just north of Peshawar. Police official Shaukat Khan said four militants wearing suicide vests entered the colony and one of them went into a church, but no one was there.

He added the attackers killed one Christian. The military said the suicide bombers died after soldiers backed by army helicopters exchanged gunfire with them. Three security officials and two civilian guards were also wounded in the attacks.

Mr Khan said a quick response from the civilian guards and security forces prevented more deaths, and the country’s army chief General Raheel Sharif praised security forces for foiling the attack.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned both attacks, adding that militants were on the back foot and were “showing their frustration by attacking soft targets”. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for both attacks.

It has also said it was behind a massive suicide blast three weeks ago that killed a number of lawyers in the southwestern city of Quetta, as well as the Lahore Easter bombing that killed 75 people. On Thursday, the military said it has prevented Islamic State expanding its network in Pakistan, by arresting 309 suspects in recent years, including IS members from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

moroccoworldnews.com

Islamic State (IS) jihadists are eyeing expansion into Southeast Asia by joining forces with local extremists, a senior US counterterrorism official warned on Friday.

IS has a history of partnering with militant groups around the world, including in Egypt, Libya and Nigeria, and wants to broaden its reach in the region, according to Justin Siberell, acting coordinator for counterterrorism at the US State Department.

“My understanding is that they have looked at existing groups across the region,” Siberell said in a conference call from Washington with Asia-based journalists.

“There have been people that have pledged affiliation and allegiance to IS at the group level. We’re certainly concerned about that, we’re concerned about the rise of new IS affiliates and we’re working with governments to do what they can to prevent that.”

Siberell also noted that militants from Southeast Asia fighting with IS in Iraq and Syria have been deployed in a unit called the Katibah Nusantara, and could pose a threat when they eventually return to their home countries.

“We’re certainly concerned about IS’ ability to expand or to establish branches,” he said.

There have been only relatively minor attacks and plots blamed on IS affiliates in the region, but analysts fear the group could become more effective.

Indonesian police earlier this month arrested six suspected militants over a plot to launch a rocket attack on an up-market Singapore waterfront district from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam.

The suspects’ alleged leader, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, is accused of planning the attack with Bahrun Naim, a leading Indonesian militant who is believed to be fighting with IS in Syria.

In January IS-linked militants launched a deadly gun and bomb attack in Jakarta which left four attackers and four civilians dead.

Singapore on August 19 announced it had detained two men under its tough internal security law after discovering they intended to travel to Syria to fight for IS.

Siberell spoke on Friday after he travelled to Bali earlier this month for a meeting on preventing the cross-border movements of known or suspected terrorists. He also visited Jakarta, Malaysia and Singapore before returning to Washington.

scmp.com

The Taliban have stepped up their attacks in Afghanistan’s northern provinces of Kunduz and Takhar in a move that highlights the group’s capability to expand its area of operations beyond the east and south of the country by executing co-ordinated offensives.

The militants temporarily seized control of the strategic Kunduz district of Khanabad on 20 August by capturing the local police headquarters and a number of checkpoints before being pushed back by the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) the next day.

At least 38 Taliban fighters were killed and several Afghan police officers were wounded in the fight, provincial spokesman Hejratullah Akbari was quoted as saying.

janes.com

At least 16 people were killed in an attack on the American University of Afghanistan [AUAF] in Kabul that started late Wednesday when a suicide bomber plowed his explosive packed vehicle into the wall of the university, officials said on Thursday.

“Seven students, three policemen, two university guards, one guard for the adjacent building – which the attackers used to penetrate the university – and three attackers were killed,” Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said.

Mujahid said 39 others including nine police officers were wounded in the incident.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The university went into panic as students and staff asked for help from the Afghan security forces. Some were able to escape shortly after the attack started.

Security forces were forced to move slowly in ending the attack because 700 students were on campus when it began, Mujahid said.

Ahmad Samim, an associate professor at the university, said he begged for his life. “Don’t kill me I am very innocent,” he said on Twitter. The professor later said he was safe and away from the university.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said there were “small numbers” of NATO advisers who were assisting their Afghan counterparts. The advisers are not taking a combat role but are advising Afghan counterparts, she said.

The United States condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms,” she said. “An attack on a university is an attack on the future of Afghanistan.”

Government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah condemned what he termed a cowardly attack on the university. “Attacking schools, universities & innocent people is a war crime. We can not bear it!” he wrote on Twitter.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack while offering “Condolences to the bereaved families & prayers with the injured.”

Earlier this month one US and one Australian professor working at the American University were kidnapped by gunmen.

The American University of Afghanistan has around 1,000 students studying various subjects at the bachelor and master’s level.

aboutcroatia.net

The Taliban insurgents have beheaded a young university student in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan and used his corpse a Body-borne Improvised Explosive Device (BBIED).

According to the local officials in Faryab, the corpse of the university student was left on a roadside after placing a remote controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in his body.

Provincial governor’s spokesman Javid Bidar said the university student was taken out of the vehicle on a highway in Faizabad district and was decapitated by the Taliban insurgents.

He said the Afghan forces discovered and defused the IED planted in his stomach before the Taliban insurgents manage to detonate it and target the Afghan forces.

Bidar further added that the move by the Taliban militants is apparently aimed at discouraging the university students from pursuing their higher education.

According to Bidar, an operation is underway to find and arrest the perpetators of the horrific incident.

The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far.

Faryab is among the volatile provinces in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgents and militants belonging to the other insurgent groups including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are actively operating in a number of its districts.

khaama.com

At least 100 US troops have been deployed in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan in a bid to help suppress the growing insurgency led by the Taliban militants.

A US military official in Afghanistan has said the decision for the deployment of around 100 troops to Helmand was taken following tactical victories by the Taliban group.

US forces spokesman in Afghanistan Gen. Charles Cleveland told reporters in Kabul that the attempts by the Taliban will likely continue although they have not been able to achieve their strategic desire and goal to seize a major population center.

The Taliban insurgents have intensified attacks in Helmand during the recent weeks and briefly captured some parts of the province including Nawa district last week.

Several commandos of the Afghan National Army were also deployed to Helmand late in July amid surging violence and as the Taliban militants managed to get closer to Lashkargah city, the provincial capital of Helmand province.

An Afghan army official earlier said the Taliban militants have deployed the group’s special forces who are equipped with modern weapons to fight in Helmand province.

According to the Afghan officials the group has eyed to shift part of their leadership council, Quetta council, to Helmand province once they gain a foothold in this province.

khaama.com