At least six militants and one soldier were killed after Afghan security forces repelled a pre-dawn attack by Taliban militants on a district in the country’s northern province of Takhar on Monday, a provincial government spokesman said.

“Dozens of militants stormed Khwaja Khar district center early Monday morning. But security forces launched a counter-attack and killed six militants during the clashes around the district center,” spokesman Senatullah Timor told Xinhua.

However, locals said the Taliban militants briefly overrun the district bazaar and local government office buildings in the district, which is located north of the provincial capital Taluqan city, 245 km north of Afghan capital of Kabul.

The militants set on fire shops and security checkpoints during the clashes, according to locals.

“Sporadic clashes were still going on in outer sides of Khwaja Khar as the security forces were pushing back the attackers. The counter-attack operation will continue before the area is cleared of the militants,” Timor said, adding two security force members and several militants were also wounded during the battles.

The Takhar province and neighboring Baghlan and Kunduz provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Earlier on Monday, the militants stormed security checkpoints around Kunduz city, capital of Kunduz province as they tried to push toward the city center.

On Saturday, the Taliban captured Khan Abad, a key district in eastern of Kunduz city after heavy clashes but the Afghan troops regained control of the district later in the day.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different places of the country, which had claimed hundreds of lives, including militants, security personnel and civilians.

The Taliban urged civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people against supporting the government.

 

 

xinhuanet.com

Clashes have reached unprecedented levels across the country but the north-east and southern parts of Afghanistan are paying a particularly high price in the ongoing war – so much so that the ‎Commandos and Special Forces are now also involved in many of these battles.

“It is not just Taliban who are angry as they are losing the war, but their regional supporters are also angry at Afghan security forces for their good achievements”, said Muhammad Rad Manish, spokesman for the ministry of defense.

Heavy clashes are ongoing in Kunduz, Baghlan and Helmand. In Kunduz province, security forces are fighting the insurgents on the outskirts of the city.

However, the question is, how was the Taliban able to reorganize an onslaught in Kunduz?

Hamdullah Danishi, former caretaker governor of Kunduz said: “Government did not destroy the nests of Taliban in the province and they could not manage the war. Security forces do not have good coordination and the Taliban took a lot of ammunition from them in various fights and today once again they are threatening the province and north-east parts of the country.”

Currently battles are ongoing in more than 10 provinces and security forces are having to carry out planned operations and night raids.

Meanwhile, poor war management by the ministries of interior and defense has been blamed for the current situation.

“If in this situation government does not take serious steps toward bringing more coordination and better management of the war, it means that security forces will become subordinates to the insurgents”, said Baz Mohammad Anwari, a military affairs analyst.

Lack of ammunition and other equipment is also said to be a cause for concern.

tolonews.com

Pakistani security sources sad its jets and ground forces have destroyed six militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region, killing nine militants.

The military says its warplanes also destroyed an ammunition dump used by militants in the Khyber tribal region.

Pakistan has been waging military offensives against militants in the country’s tribal regions since June 2014.

The army has claimed success, but militants have still managed to launch attacks in major cities.

 

 

thepeninsulaqatar.com

 

Qahar Sylab military operation is underway with new tactic on ISIS hideouts in eastern Nangarhar province.

Gen. Qadam Shah Shahem chief staff of Ministry of National Defense in his trip to Nangarhar said, hundreds ISIS loyalists including their commanders were killed during air and ground attacks carried out by Afghan and NATO forces in different parts of the province and most areas in Koot and Acheen districts have been cleared from existence of the terrorist group.

Air and ground attacks will continue until the province completely cleared from being of ISIS affiliates, Shahem added.

Security officials asked from Nangarhar people to cooperate with Afghan security forces in battlefields.

 

 

bakhtarnews.com.af

Private defence contractors in Afghanistan outnumber US troops by 3 to 1, says a report prepared for the US Congress this week. The Congressional Research Service (CRS), which prepared the report, notes that during recent US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors frequently averaged 50 per cent or more of the total Department of Defence (DOD) — both military and non-military — presence there.

The report — “Department of Defence Contractor and Troop Levels in Iraq and Afghanistan: 2007-2016” — shows how the United States now prefers to use these private workers for fighting its wars overseas.

DOD defines a defence contractor as “any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, or other legal non-federal entity that enters into a contract directly with the DOD to furnish services, supplies, or construction.”

The workers, although paid better than regular troops, are not entitled to other benefits, such as pensions, insurance and health facilities, and thus cost less. Since many of them are foreign nationals, their casualties do not have the same political impact in the United States as the body bags of US soldiers do.

Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistani citizens in Lahore in January 2011 and was released after paying blood money, was also a private contractor for the CIA.

Yet, the US Defence Department has spent more than $220 billion on private contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2007 and 2016, the period covered in the CRS report.

The data shows that the non-military defence workers have continuously outnumbered US troops in Afghanistan since mid-2011.

Although since 2011, the United States has steadily decreased its presence in Afghanistan, withdrawing both troops and private contractors, the ratio between the two groups continues to widen. This is in line with the Obama administration’s policy of limiting the US military role in Afghanistan.

In 2012, the US had more than 117,000 private contractors in Afghanistan, the highest ever. And the significance of their role in the Afghan war becomes even more about when their presence is compared with those of the US military, around 88,000.

Almost one fourth — 23pc — of these contractors were employed as supplemental security personnel, and more than 70pc were foreign nationals receiving money from American companies and agencies.

As of March 2016, there were approximately 28,600 private contractors in Afghanistan, compared to 8,730 US troops. Thus the contract personnel represented approximately 77pc of the total Department of Defence presence in the country. Of the 28,600 DOD contractor personnel, approximately 870, or about three per cent, were private security contractors.

The CRS report shows that the majority of DOD contractors in Afghanistan today are providing logistics and maintenance services, to both American and Afghan troops. About 1,600 are working as translators, 1,700 as construction workers, and 2,200 as base support professionals.

The US media, while commenting on the CRS report, noted that US lawmakers in recent years have questioned how much oversight and scrutiny those contractors receive. The media also referred to concerns from watchdog groups about waste and fraud connected to war-zone contracts. Earlier this year, the US Senate attached new contracting oversight rules and reforms to its draft of the annual defence authorization bill, but those provisions don’t specifically single out Afghanistan contractors as an area of concern, a US media report noted.

The CRS also reports that earlier this summer, roughly 2,500 defence contractors were employed in Iraq to assist with the fight against Islamic State group militants in the region, along with about 4,000 US troops.

DOD ceased publicly reporting numbers of DOD contractor personnel working in Iraq in December 2013, following the conclusion of the US combat mission, and the subsequent drawdown of DOD contractor personnel levels in Iraq.

In late 2014, in response in part to developing operations in the region, DOD reinitiated reporting broad estimates of DOD contractor personnel deployed in Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). As the number of DOD contractor personnel in Iraq increased over the first six months of 2015, DOD resumed reporting exact numbers and primary mission categories of contractor personnel in Iraq in June 2015.

dawn.com

The U.S is monitoring Daesh and its affiliated groups in Afghanistan besides helping the latter’s security forces to fight out the terrorist organization which is trying to expand its base in Afghanistan, a top American official has said

“We are always looking at ISIL’s (Daesh) ability to find safe haven and then expand to work with, these affiliate groups, factions of groups such as the Taliban that they might be able to exploit. We are monitoring it very closely,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Wednesday.

“We’re in close contact and coordination with the Afghan security forces in that regard, and we’re going to continue. If we see opportunities to take out key leadership, we’re going to strike,” Toner said while responding to a question and reiterated that reconciliation process with the Taliban needs to be an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process”.

“Any time you’ve got various splinter groups emerging, that does make those efforts more complex, but that remains our overarching goal and what we view as really the long-term solution for Afghanistan to achieve peace and stability. But I don’t have an assessment of what the latest development might mean for prospects, but we continue to encourage those efforts,” he said.

“We’re actively engaged with the government of Afghanistan and our partners in the region to prevent that from taking place. We don’t want to see them gain safe haven or material support from the Taliban or anyone,” he added.

Asserting that the U.S has made a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, Toner said it would continue to help Afghanistan build a more stable, peaceful, democratic, and prosperous future.

tolonews.com

An Afghan woman has surrendered to police claiming that her husband, a local commander for the militant group Islamic State, (IS) was pressuring her to carry out a suicide bombing, officials said.

The woman, whose name has not been revealed, turned herself in on August 16 in the northern province of Jowzjan, along the border with Turkmenistan.

The case underscores the ongoing threat from militants in Afghanistan, where IS fighters appear to have been building a presence for more than two years as they compete with the Taliban to spearhead antigovernment and anti-Western efforts.

IS devotees have claimed responsibility for a number of recent deadly attacks against Afghan civilians and security forces.

The would-be bomber reportedly remains in custody, and the details of the case were provided to RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan by Afghan authorities.

They say her husband, Qari Zia, is a former Taliban commander from Jowzjan Province who crossed over to IS and is now based in the extremists’ stronghold of Nangarhar, in eastern Afghanistan.

“Qari Zia…encouraged his wife to carry out a suicide attack,” said Rahmatullah Turkistani, the police commander of Jowzjan Province. “He wanted his wife to come to Nangarhar to receive training in preparation for a suicide attack.”

Turkistani said the woman was traveling to Nangarhar when she surrendered to security forces in Jowzjan’s provincial capital, Sheberghan. She is being held in a women’s shelter in the city while police investigate her claims.

The police commander said Zia had repeatedly telephoned his wife to urge her to go to Nangarhar’s provincial capital, Jalalabad, where authorities believe he is hiding.

“She said her husband pressured her but she didn’t want to be a suicide bomber and she wanted to surrender to the government,” said Najiba Quraishi, the head of the provincial department of women’s affairs in Jowzjan, who has interviewed the woman.

Quraishi added that the woman was 32 years old and had been married to Zia for three years, during which time he had constantly pressured her to carry out a suicide bombing.

IS Threat

The case comes one week after police detained Mawlawi Baz Mohammad, the shadow IS governor of Jowzjan, in a security operation in Qush Tepa district. Officials have said the militants’ ranks include members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a primarily Uzbek group known by Afghans as Jundullah.

IS militants are mostly based in pockets of territory in the Nangarhar, Kunar, and Zabul provinces, along Afghanistan’s porous border with Pakistan. They have reportedly established recruitment and training camps in the region.

The group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last month that tore through crowds of minority Shi’ite Hazara protesters in Kabul, killing more than 70 people in the deadliest attack in the capital since the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban and pursue Al-Qaeda’s leadership in 2001.

In July, Afghan forces launched an offensive against IS fighters in the east of the country, backed by U.S. forces and air strikes. Last week, the Pentagon confirmed that the leader of IS in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hafiz Saeed, was killed weeks ago in an American drone strike in Nangarhar.

Despite the blow, analysts say the IS threat in Afghanistan is far from over. U.S. military officials have said that there are between 1,500 and 3,000 IS-linked militants in the eastern region, most of them former Afghan and Pakistani Taliban fighters. The United States said last week that an estimated 300 IS fighters had been killed in July.

 

 

rferl.org

As Pakistan deployed more troops on its border withAfghanistan, 15 Taliban insurgents were killed in airstrike in the tribal region o Khyber, security official claimed.

A dozen fighters were wounded on Tuesday when military jets struck Taliban hideouts in Kukikhel area. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-i-Islam-affiliated militants were targeted in Rajgal, Kheraba, Bagdara and other areas of Tirah Valley.

The News quoted unnamed officials as saying that a ground operation was also carried out in Rajgal and Sattar Killi. Five militant sanctuaries were destroyed in the bombing raids in the remote valley.

A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the “Operation Khyber 3” had been launched near the border to strengthen troop deployment in Rajgal area to effectively guard against terrorists’ movement.

Rajgal is situated close to the Nazyan district o eastern Nangarhar province, where the Lashkar-e-Islam head Mangal Bagh had established his base.“The militants often cross into Afghanistan after carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan,” said a local tribesman.

 

 

pajhwok.com

Daesh sympathizers could be plotting grenade attacks on government offices and public areas across Malaysia, a counterterror police unit chief said Tuesday

A grenade blast at the Movida nightclub outside the Southeast Asian nation’s capital of Kuala Lumpur injured eight people in late June. Authorities said that Malaysians fighting alongside Daeshin Syria were behind the bombing.

“With the Movida bombing it’s clear they have the connection and ability to get weapons from neighbouring countries and that is our main concern now,” Ayob Khan told Channel NewsAsia.

Police believe Islamists could be in possession of more obsolete grenades that, Khan said, were made in 1967 and remained deadly. Bomb attacks will most likely target government offices, places of entertainment, as well as police and army facilities, he predicted.

 

 

 

sputniknews.com/

Southeast Asia could become ISIL’s next base, as the terrorist organization seeks to expand its operations outside of the Middle East and North Africa.

Organizations inspired by ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) are already gaining ground in the region, which is rich in latent jihadist potential: Small jihadist movements are operating in Indonesia and the Philippines; an ongoing Muslim insurgency is burning in southern Thailand; there is strong support for Sharia law in parts of Malaysia; and a large number of Southeast Asians who have fought in Syria and Iraq have since returned to the region.

ISIL hopes that a base — or wilayat — can catalyze these forces into a powerful regional jihadist movement. ISIL’s influence in the region has been growing steadily since mid-2014. The organization poses a significant threat in part “because of how fast it’s gained popularity among regional groups,” said Joseph Liow, a senior fellow at the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies in Washington.

“Economically, Southeast Asia is very unique, and given the high density of countries in the neighborhood, including large Muslim populations in Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Philippines, it is only natural for ISIL to look to the region,” said Vikram Rajakumar, a senior analyst at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

Southeast Asia is fertile ground for ISIL in part because it has strong pre-existing terrorist networks in place. Until recently, extremist groups waged mostly local battles. Now, they have begun to link up across national borders, inspired by ISIL’s global approach.

The well-established Katibah Nusantara (KN) is led by three Indonesian militants based in Syria. The group claims to represent Southeast Asians fighting on behalf of ISIL, and has some 200 fighters based in Raqqa, according to Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington.

The group’s members are active in spreading ISIL propaganda, recruiting members, coordinating attacks, and fostering terrorist networks back in their home countries,” said Thanawan Klumklomchit, the regional terrorism prevention officer at the U.N. Office on Drug and Crime. “KN could be an important enabling factor for ISIL,” she added.

Homegrown terrorist groups in the region, some which have pledged loyalty to ISIL, have appropriated many of its more successful strategies. They cultivate a strong social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, and use encrypted forms of communication like WhatsApp and Telegram to plan and carry out attacks, raise funds, and attract new members. “Evidence is pointing towards Southeast Asia groups seeking inspiration from one another,” said Rajakumar.

ISIL has partly also been popular among extremist groups in the region because it does not seek to control their operations as Al Qaeda had done. “It just wants these groups to ‘hurt its enemies,’” said Bilveer Singh, a regional security specialist at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. Pledging allegiance to ISIL is also a useful mechanism for local fighters to get military training, funding and combat experience.

ISIL-linked attacks in the region have been small-scale so far, but analysts warn that more ambitious operations are likely, as local leaders loyal to ISIL compete for supremacy. Some ISIL propaganda videos now boast Indonesian subtitles. One, posted in March, showed Indonesian children training with AK-47s.

Meanwhile, Islamic militants returning from Syria and Iraq come home with “unprecedented access” to funding, terrorist networks, combat skills and information skills,” said Klumklomchit.

“ISIL has sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Southeast Asia to plan, prepare and execute attacks,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.

Indonesia — home to the world’s largest Muslim population — has suffered multiple attacks, the most vicious of which were carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda offshoot that has waged a separatist war for decades. Abu Bakar Bashir, the jailed radical cleric and leader of the militant Islamic group, has pledged loyalty to ISIL and encouraged his followers to do the same.

In January, a series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks in central Jakarta were claimed by ISIL, who said its “crusader alliance” had carried out the Paris-style attacks.

“We now know the Jakarta attacks took place after an order from an Indonesian in Syria affiliated with [ISIL],” said Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict. “We now have some 500 Indonesian citizens in Syria, probably 250 to 300 fighters.” Several dozen others known to have successfully crossed into Syria have since returned. Tensions between the nation’s moderate Muslims and extremists are growing, and the government has been slow to impose preventive measures.

“January’s Jakarta attacks were directly funded by ISIL,” said Gunaratna. “But this is not the only isolated case. We have seen other examples of movement of funds to Malaysia and to Indonesia.”

Long-standing ethnic and religious conflicts in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, are adding fuel to the fire. Escalating domestic tensions make extremist recruiters’ jobs that much easier.

A predominately Catholic country, the Philippines has a small, marginalized Muslim population, some of whom have become radicalized. They have their own reasons for supporting an independent Islamic state. “All kinds of groups from within the region have congregated here to support their activities, all expressing their loyalties to ISIL,” said Singh. “It’s no longer just one Philippine group fighting the government, but joint operations of groups.”

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is the Philippines’ most dangerous militant organization. Operating out of Basilan, in the Sulu archipelago, with a strength of fewer than 500 fighters, ASG has abducted, assassinated, bombed and fought soldiers, police, local and foreigners for more than two decades — with the expressed goal of creating an Islamic state.

“ASG has pledged allegiance to ISIL, and ISIL is aware that they are the only militant jihadist group that has the capabilities of a full militia to mount operational attacks,” said Andrin Raj, Southeast Asia regional director at the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals.

The group is believed to have splintered into hardcore ideologues and mainly kidnap-for-profit bandits, making it harder to eradicate and track. They are also protected by the region’s borders with Malaysia and Indonesia, which are notoriously porous.

Another Philippines-based organization, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), have fought a decades-long war for an autonomous region in the impoverished southern island of Mindanao. Founded in 2010, the 400-strong group recently began displaying ISIL flags and making videos using the group’s rhetoric.

But Malaysia, although it has a far smaller Muslim population than its neighbors, may be the most vulnerable to attack. “An attack [in Malaysia] would be far more consequential in terms of terrorist aims, provoking societal tensions and a heavy-handed government response,” said Abuza. “Malaysia lacks the social resilience that Indonesia has in spades. Recruitment and radicalization is almost all done online, and it cuts across the entire socio-economic spectrum.”

An attack on a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur in June was the first ISIL-related attack in the country, allegedly plotted by a Malaysian extremist who fought with ISIL in Syria. The government has identified 150 ISIL cells since the beginning of 2015, and estimated some 50,000 ISIL sympathizers in the country.

In Thailand, rebels are fighting for greater autonomy for the 1.8 million Muslims in a country 90 percent Buddhist. The protracted conflict, now 12 years old, has killed more than 6,500 people.

So far, rebels have rejected outside attempts by jihadists like Jemaah Islamiyah to turn it into a religious conflict. But this could change. Relations between the Thai government and the rebels have soured, after several rounds of peace talks have failed. The stand-off could make younger rebels impatient and encourage them to break away from the old guard.

The danger is that they “take a page from the ISIL playbook and say that the only way to succeed is by ramping up the sectarian violence,” said Abuza.

On August 11 and 12, Thailand was hit by multiple explosions targeting tourist-popular towns of Hua Hin, Phuket and other locations, killing at least four and injuring 20. The attacks come days after a national referendum approved a constitution giving more power to the ruling military junta. No group has claimed responsibility, but attention could focus on southern militants. If so, this would be a new expansion of their insurgency and targets.

ISIL has not officially designated a specific country as a potential wilayat, but experts say the group has its eye on the southern Philippines. ASG’s leader, Isnilon Hapilon, pledged allegiance to ISIL earlier this year. The group has claimed responsibility for kidnapping at least 18 Indonesians and Malaysians in the Sulu and Celebes seas this year.

In an ISIL video released in June, Malaysian terrorist Rafi bin Udin described Hapilon as an amir, or leader, in the Philippines and encouraged terrorist attacks against Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

“ISIL hopes creating a wilayat in the Philippines will give the impression that its global footprint is continuing to expand, despite its recent setbacks in the Middle East,” said James Brandon, head of political and security risk at Stirling Assynt, a U.K.-based consultancy. “It also hopes [a base] will act as a logistical and ideological hub for ISIL-influenced jihadists throughout Southeast Asia.”

An ISIL foothold in the Philippines would present “far-reaching security implications for the stability and prosperity of a rising Asia,” Gunaratna said.

Bangladesh may also come to play an important role in ISIL’s strategy. “There are existing jihadist movements there that can be reinvigorated, a secular government whose oppression of mainstream Islamists is making some more susceptible to jihadist viewpoints, and an inequitable socio-economic environment that can help fuel radicalization,” said Brandon. From a strategic perspective, a strong presence in Bangladesh would facilitate attacks on India, China and Myanmar — all of which are key enemies of ISIL. “Attacks there would boost the group’s profile,” he said.

ISIL is well placed to take on the role of taking revenge for perceived atrocities against Rohingya, Kashmiris, Uighurs and other minority Muslim groups. “This will allow jihadists to pose as being the ‘shield’ of Islam and to thereby make a play for the hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims,” Brandon said.

Any Southeast Asian wilayat is unlikely to be a stepping-stone or base for carrying out expanded attacks in Europe or the Caucasus. The terrorist threat, even among those who have aligned themselves loosely with ISIL, remains regionally focused.

But what happens in the Middle East and North Africa could influence the group’s success in Southeast Asia. The more ISIL’s territory shrinks, experts warn, the more fighters will be let loose for global acts of terrorism.

“At some point there is going to be a terrorist diaspora,” FBI Director James B. Comey, said at a recent conference. “Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield.”

 

 

politico.eu