Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday addressed delegates at the Counter-Terrorism Conference 2016 in Jaipur, India, and called for a joint counter-terrorism action plan to be formulated and implemented by regional countries.

Contextualizing terrorism in Afghanistan he used three periods as examples – the Cold War; post-Cold War; and Post-9/11.

“The failures to follow through, the missed opportunities for regional cooperation, and the continued pursuit of zero-sum policies characterize these three eras. And together they have contributed to creating an enabling environment for terrorism and its utilization as an instrument of state policy,” he said.

Abdullah went on to say that before the imposed conflicts, Afghanistan used to be one of the most peaceful countries in the region, despite rife poverty. “But we became one of the last victims of the Cold War, as the former Soviet Union invaded and occupied our country.”

“In defense of our sovereignty and freedom, the Afghan people rose in resistance against the Soviets. And in our just war of liberation, we relied on those in the international community that shared our values and offered us resistance support,” he said.

Abdullah went on to say that the end of the Cold War led to a power vacuum not only in the region but across the World and that regional players began to act irresponsibly in an effort to protect their self-interest and to strengthen their strategic position in their respective regions.

“In effect, the end of the Cold War ushered in the beginning of regional cold wars, as opposed to a level playing field for regional cooperation.”

He went on to say that ever since, states have often utilized proxy wars to serve their narrowly defined national security interests, disregarding “win-win” cooperation promoted by numerous UN Security Council resolutions backed by annual General Assembly debates.

But the situation has yet to change, even though lip-service is often given in support of a paradigm shift to results-oriented regional cooperation, he said.

Considering this dynamic, we are effectively facing a regional cold war where terrorism has become the principal instrument of projecting influence by some states against others, he said.

“As a consequence, there is no universal appreciation of the grave danger, which terrorism poses to regional stability and international peace and security.”

Although nations generally agree that terrorism threatens the security of the whole humanity, each state is developing its own homegrown capabilities to tackle the direct threat it faces within its milieu. They have been reluctant to adopt and implement a global counter-terrorism action plan, even though terrorism sees no borders, nationalities, religions, creeds or cultures, he said.

“I propose that each region assess the set of threats terrorism poses to their security and development and then agree to draft and implement a joint a counter-terrorism action plan,” Abdullah added.

“If the states in the region have the appropriate counter-terrorism policies and laws; if they operate at home based on a common definition of terrorism; and if they have multilaterally reached a consensus on the nature of the threat and the need to counter it; then what bars us from collectively acting against terrorism, as we have witnessed the tragic terrorist attacks claiming many innocent lives in Kabul, Mumbai, Peshawar, Paris, Ankara, San Bernardino (California), and so many other places?”

“In simple terms, why can’t we regionalize our national counter-terrorism action plans?” he asked.

Abdullah said the regional mechanisms of such a cooperation are already in place including the The Heart of Asia Process, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

“But we should operationalize these mechanisms, which Afghanistan has often demanded and stood ready to do our part in utilizing them for effective regional counter-terrorism cooperation, he said.

Abdullah also raised the issue of peace talks and said: “As our brave forces continue fighting terrorism, we have relaunched a peace process. Our peace efforts are aimed at meeting the desire of every Afghan for freeing our country from an endless cycle of war and violence and to prevent the use of our soil as a platform for regional and global terrorist activities.”

He went on to say that: “On peace with the Taliban groups, our position is clear: Those Taliban groups, who are willing to join the process, they are welcome. While those, who refuse to do so, would be dealt with militarily.”

He said government does not differentiate between the Taliban and Daesh affiliated groups, and are firmly committed to fighting and defeating any militant groups that share the ideology of Al Qaeda and Daesh.

“As we continue our peace efforts, we invite all our neighbors to cooperate with Afghanistan. The National Unity Government of Afghanistan has repeatedly called on all stakeholders, including our neighbors, to commit the collective will and resources to confront what is a common security threat. Afghanistan has done more than lion’s share,” he said.

tolonews.com

The number of child soldiers in the Philippines could further increase, amid reports the Daesh group is recruiting young Filipino-Muslims in the south, officials said on Tuesday.

The Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) said this could be averted if the government continues to pursue the peace process by engaging in talks with various rebel groups.

“Mindanao in the south has many armed groups. If the ISIS [Daesh] has recruited Filipino-Muslims there, I’m sure these would include children,” Romeo Dongeto, Executive Director of (PLCPD), which has taken the cudgel for children caught between warring parties in conflict areas, told Gulf News.

“During political conflict children die, or they lose families, health facilities, schools, and are vulnerable to sexual abuse and recruitment by warring parties,” said Dongeto, adding, “Children seized by government security forces in war zones are woefully rehabilitated — they become assets of drug lords and gun runners, or part of military apparatus as spies and cooks.”

“The peace process is one option to spare our children from war,” said Congressman Teddy Baguilat, adding the non-passage of a proposed law to implement the 2014 political settlement between the Philippine government and the 38-year old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf rebels) “should not discourage the government and peace advocates from pushing for peace and the legislation of peace settlements”.

gulfnews.com

A radio station run by the Islamic State (Isis) in Afghanistan has been destroyed in air strikes, which also killed several militants. The radio station, known as “Voice of the Caliphate”, has been a main propaganda vehicle for the Islamist group in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.

Both Afghan and American authorities have confirmed the hit but details are still sketchy on who conducted the air strikes. Local reports suggest at least 29 militants including the key insurgents behind the radio station were killed in the attack.

A spokesman of the provincial government, Hazrat Husain Mashriqiwal, said a self-styled court run by the IS was also brought down by the strikes. A statement from the local government read: “The foreign forces conducted four air raids against IS positions in Momand Dara locality of Achin district Monday night, killing 29 IS militants and destroying an IS radio station.”

Following the Afghan version, an official statement from the US Army’s Colonel Mike Lawhorn said: “US forces conducted two counter-terrorism airstrikes in Achin district,” without offering more details.

The IS radio station was launched in December 2015 as a key recruitment tool and to broadcast propaganda materials by the IS. The launch of the facility had rattled Afghan authorities already struggling to combat the Taliban’s insurgency.

The attack was not the first attempt by Afghan forces to uproot the radio station. At least two previous bids had gone in vain as the station pressed ahead with its broadcasts. Local officials had also suspected the IS extremists managed to broadcast the messages through a mobile studio, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact location.

There are growing concerns that the IS is increasing its foothold in volatile Afghanistan both by snatching operatives of the Afghan Taliban and by drafting fresh militants. Pentagon has also issued a warning saying the Afghan arm of the Iraqi extremist group has become “more operationally active”, aimed at carving out a territory for itself.

The emergence of IS also poses a huge challenge to the Kabul government, which has battled terror on its soil since the turn of the century. It has also increased rivalry between the Taliban and IS, which has intensified in recent months as the latter makes serious inroads.

ibtimes.co.uk

Given the Islamic State’s (IS) interest in expanding into South Asia, and the worrisome interest generated in sections of the Indian citizenry, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has rightly termed this threat as a significant “long-term national security concern.”

So far, India has managed to restrict IS recruits from the country to only a handful. To that end, the 09 February 2015 Indian Express report, which stated that the Telangana Police “is dipping into its Naxalite-era experience in surveillance and methods of deterrence to keep a watch on youths who are susceptible to online radicalisation and recruitment by the Iraqi militant group Islamic State,” is noteworthy.

Under this strategy, arrest is not employed as the first option. Instead, measures such as increased vigilance and counseling are used for deterrence; and help is enlisted from parents, relatives, and community elders. This is key, because of Telangana’s track record – according to reports, it is one of the first states to set a model for dealing with IS related cases; and 21 youth – the highest number in any state – have been prevented from leaving for Syria in 2015.

Can the lessons from the Telangana Police’s experience in countering Left Wing Extremism (LWE) – which is considered relatively successful – be harnessed to counter the IS threat?

To examine this, it would be important to look at the strategy adopted in Telangana (formerly part of Andhra Pradesh) to counter LWE. Andhra’s strategy in reducing LWE influence is attributed to military tactics and the success of the Greyhounds commandos. Ancillary developmental measures are often overlooked by most scholars. In fact, by a large measure, and like any other state affected by sub-national conflicts, the strategy it employed to handle LWE cadres, is considered relatively harsh. However, there are several instances where security officials, for ‘Winning Hearts and Minds’, adopted several ‘population centric’ measures that included infrastructure-development schemes and civic action programmes.

This commentary compares and analyses two measures – a) involving parents and community members, and b) counseling – of the many that have reportedly been implemented to counter the IS’s influence in India, and proposes solutions to address shortcomings.

Involving Parents and Community Members
One of the first few reported instances on involving parents to counter LWE influence took place in Karimnagar on 28 July 2000, where a counseling session of parents, and their subsequent appeal published in the local newspaper, lead to four dalam members deciding to quit underground activity.

Several similar initiatives followed, such as prodding the families of the cadres to go on hunger strikes; visits by elected representatives of local parties, revenue officials, civilians and police officials to houses of Maoist cadres, urging the parents to play a part in their surrenders.

In comparison, parents and community elders of youth being radicalised by the IS are involved mostly to keep a watch on suspicious activities and to ensure that the latter do not get brainwashed.

While involving families, it is important to prevent any propensity of isolation from developing, especially amongst women and children. Essentially, families should be able to share their concerns and experiences outside their homes, freely and without fear. Building a community-centric or collaborative approach to policing that truly generates a sentiment of police meekosam (police for you) will be the way forward.

Counseling
Telangana Police officials have echoed New Delhi’s views on the approach to countering the influence of the IS. Reportedly, counseling is being preferred over knee-jerk arrests of radicalised individuals, and also as a deterrent. This is reminiscent of a decade old strategy of advising, organising ‘counseling melas’, and street plays for rural youth and militant cadres to wrest them away from LWE fold.

However, it is important to note that it is not counseling alone that has insulated those susceptible to LWE influence. A combination of counseling and pressure tactics produced results. In the case of IS influence, counseling appears to have played a significant role. Available data reveals that nearly 80 per cent of those reportedly planning to leave for Syria were counseled, and the remainder, arrested.

An important aspect vis-à-vis preferring counseling instead of arrests as a strategy is ensuring prevention of recidivism (counseled individuals returning to extremism). Critics of similar models of counter-radicalism have called such approaches ‘soft’ and ‘dangerous’ due to the probability  of recidivism. In fact, some officials have expressed fears of recidivism in surrendered LWE cadres if there is poor implementation, monitoring, and distribution of benefits under the surrender and rehabilitation policy.

Therefore, ensuring that the counseling process fully amends the behaviour of the detainee – via discussion, debate,  and correction of misconceived notions of religion that justify radicalism – is required to make this approach effective.

Strengthening probation and aftercare services, providing sufficient opportunities to reintegrate, and ensuring support in finding employment etc. are some initiatives that could reduce chances  of recidivism.

The population-centric approach implemented during counter-LWE operations in Telangana may provide an effective way to deal with IS-related radicalisation. Simultaneously, however, it illustrates the imperfect nature of such a complex effort. Its pitfalls – namely fear of isolation, and recidivism – should be borne in mind, for that would help us go a long way in updating our overall approach to counter-radicalisation.

ipcs.org

ISIS member Mohammad Shafi Armar alias Yusuf al-Hindi’s vast propaganda network is used to attract wide eyed youngsters who are star struck by the terror group. Yusuf was the symbol of ultimate ISIS power, a man who had answers for disgruntled Indian youngsters. He was earlier in Syria, the heart of the ISIS war, a place where these youngsters pined to go.

The potential candidate could go to the Facebook page and once the page was ‘liked’ the candidate would get a message from Yusuf. Yusuf would create a Skype account for the potential recruit with chat names like ‘Gumnaam Bhai’, ‘Crazzyboys’, ‘Janta’ and ‘Hindi Bhai’.

According to reports, Yusuf prefers chatting on social networking software Trillian and the conversation would be about atrocities on Muslims across the world. The last contact he had made to operatives in India was as early as late January 2016.

Yusuf is reportedly sowing the seeds of ISIS in India by remote controlling everything sitting in Syria. He allegedly managed to exploit the hawala route and send Rs 6.50 lakh to Muddabbir Sheikh to finance terror activities in India.

He also orchestrated meetings in Tumkur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. He provided banned web links to Md. Nafees aka Abu Zarrar on how to make bombs and directed recruits to scout for secluded forest areas for possible jihadi training programmes.

He never really disclosed his personal details to his trainees. All he is known to have said was that he was originally from Bengaluru, his father is dead and mother still lived in the city. Yusuf is fluent in Hindi and often tested his trainees in translating English to Hindi.

The ones arrested in India were Yusuf’s interns – being groomed to strike hard. They had it all, an organisational structure, physical training, finances and weapons and explosives training. Until Yusuf-al Hindi is neutralized, infatuated Indian youngsters will continue to fall prey to the ISIS.

ibnlive.com

As Islamic State branches out from its base in Syria and Iraq, fears are mounting here that Southeast Asia is emerging as a new target of opportunity for the violent jihadi group.

In some cases, Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, is supplanting established radical Islamist groups — often with ties to the rival al Qaeda — and in other cases is linking up with local jihadi groups that have long battled governments in the region.

A relentless U.S.-led bombing campaign in Islamic State’s Middle East stronghold has forced the group into a tactical retreat there, but has also had the effect of steering many hard-line insurgents to return home to their country of origin, where authorities fear their notoriously harsh brand of warfare — and the lessons they learned in Syria — will spread.

Just in January, Islamic State leaders claimed responsibility for a strike in Jakarta that left seven people dead, and issued an open threat to Malaysia that it would attack if the government pursued its harsh crackdown on Muslim extremists.

The Katibah Nusantara, a unit of Southeast Asians who fight for Islamic State in Syria, with roots dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, issued the warning last week to the government in Kuala Lampur.

“If you catch us, we will only increase in number. But if you let us be, we will be closer to our goal of bringing back the rule of the caliph,” it warned Malaysian officials in a video. “We will never bow down to the democratic system of governance as we will only follow Allah’s rules.”

U.S. and Western intelligence analysts have long feared the Islamic State would try to export its violent extremist model beyond its Middle East base. In addition to spectacular Islamic State-inspired attacks in places like Paris and California, the group has established a major outpost in war-torn Libya and is said to be seeking recruits and affiliates in countries such as Russia and Afghanistan. Southeast Asia, with some of the world’s largest Muslim communities and a history of domestic jihadi movements, is seen as a particularly fertile recruiting ground.

“This type of asymmetric warfare will continue and probably increase as more and more Muslims will be radicalized by the global war on terror,” said Peter Maguire, a professor with the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Hundreds of militants were recruited from the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia — the world’s single most populous Muslim nation — as Isalmic State began establishing its “caliphate” three years ago. In Jemaah Islamiyah (“Islamic Congregation”), a radical Islamic terror group that once operated cells across the region, Islamic State could study an organization that was strikingly similar both tactically and ideologically.

An updated estimate issued in December by the private intelligence consulting firm The Soufan Group numbers Islamic State recruits from Southeast Asia as “at least 600,” with a large majority coming from Indonesia.

“Since July 2014, the Islamic State has posted propaganda and recruiting videos aimed at persuading Indonesians and Malaysians [to travel to] Syria with their families,” the Soufan survey reported. “One video showed Malay-speaking children training with weapons in Islamic State-held territory, while two Malaysians were featured in another Islamic State video of the beheading of a Syrian man.”

Jemaah Islamiyah linked up with al Qaeda and unleashed a bloody bombing campaign throughout the 2000s, claiming hundreds of lives in pursuit of their demands for a single Muslim state across much of Southeast Asia, including parts of northern Australia, with a caliphate at the helm. At its height the group claimed some 5,000 fighters.

Most of its members have since been jailed or killed, and surviving remnants are adopting a soft approach to the new crop of jihadis while maintaining ties with al Qaeda and its affiliate al Nusra.

The region’s security threats were not lost on Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who late last month made a short tour of Cambodia, Laos and China ahead of a summit between President Obama and leaders of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be held at Sunnylands, California, in mid-February.

U.S. relations with Cambodia have been held back by human rights abuses and Phnom Penh’s tilt toward China’s maritime ambitions in the highly contested South China Sea, but Mr. Kerry found some common ground with Prime Minister Hun Sen, the region’s longest-serving leader.

Mr. Kerry said it was agreed that countering Islamic State and “violent extremism was absolutely a top priority,” adding that Cambodia “had an interest in having our teams, our experts, come in order to brief and exchange ideas.”

The fears of Islamic State infiltration are more pronounced here because Cambodia has too often attracted Islamic militants in search of a place to hide.

Among them is the Guantanamo Bay inmate Riduan Ismuddin. Also known as Hambali, the Jemaah Islamiyah operative was the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that claimed more than 200 lives. Lately, at least one suspect in last year’s Erawan Shrine bombing in Bangkok, one that left 20 people dead in the heart of the Thai capital, was nabbed while hiding out in a Phnom Penh red-light bar district.

Broader threat

But the broader threats posed by Islamic militancy go much deeper, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and, to a lesser extent, the three provinces of southern Thailand.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Jemaah Islamiyah also established links with the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has a history of kidnapping and ransoming of foreigners in the southern Philippines dating back to the late 1990s.

In November a leaked memo from the Malaysian police warned that Abu Sayyaf had established cell networks across Malaysia in preparation for attacks there.

This would represent a significant expansion of the self-proclaimed jihadi group that, along with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, another Filipino terror group, has sworn allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has led Islamic State for almost five years.

Todd Elliott, a risk analyst with Jakarta-based Concord Consulting, said given the close interaction of jihadis from different countries within the Katibah Nusantara, it was possible that Malaysian militants would become increasingly active at home and in other parts of Southeast Asia, expanding Islamic State’s brand and its prestige as it grows.

“Given the long presence of jihadism in Malaysia, the conservative nature of Islam in Malaysia and the involvement of several Malaysian citizens in [Jemaah Islamiyah], it is likely that the emergence of ISIS has to some extent galvanized domestic militant networks and their supporters,” Mr. Elliott said.

“Several alleged plots foiled in Malaysia over the past year, including the arrest of a potential suicide bomber earlier this month, increases the likelihood that ISIS-inspired violence will occur in Malaysia sooner rather than later,” he said.

Further, at least 19 veterans of al-Baghdadi’s front lines have gone on trial in Indonesia for conspiring with terrorists and face up to 20 years behind bars. Pledging allegiance to Islamic State can also result in a person’s citizenship being revoked.

Islamic State videos urging jihad in Southeast Asia are common on social media, and Mr. Elliott said a recent nine-minute video posted on the Internet had called for attacks on Indonesia’s Presidential Palace and the Jakarta Police headquarters before it was blocked.

Islamic State’s gains and its powerful social media propaganda efforts have sown confusion in the region about which attacks are locally planned and which are part of a global jihadi network. For instance, the senior leadership of Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the Jan. 14 attack in Jakarta on a Starbucks and a Western-style department store, but it is still not clear if the claim was true.

Police investigations indicated forces behind that strike were tied mainly to older domestic terrorist networks. And at least two suspects had served time behind bars for terrorism-related offenses with links to Jemaah Islamiyah and former rebels who fought for independence in the eastern province of Aceh.

“The attack in Jakarta demonstrates that local ISIS supporters have the capacity and determination to carry out violence in the name of the global terrorist group, but there are doubts the violence was purely an ISIS operation,” he said.

His sentiments were similar to Indonesia’s national police spokesman Anton Charliyan, who recently named Santoso, head of the East Indonesian Mujahidin terrorist group known by its Indonesian acronym MIT, as one of the most wanted terrorists in Indonesia.

MIT’s base in Poso, on the far east island of Sulawesi, offers a close proximity to like-minded groups in East Malaysia and the Southern Philippines, cutting across a lawless zone of smugglers and rebels who ply the Sulu and Celebes seas.

In 2005 the world was horrified by the beheadings of three teenage Christian schoolgirls by Muslim militants amid an outbreak of religious violence. More recently, MIT has been receiving cash and assistance from Islamic State along with its calls for attacks on Western targets.

“The Santoso group is part of the ISIS network,” Mr. Charliyan said.

There is no shortage of well-equipped special forces, like Indonesia’s Densus 88, capable of dealing with imminent threats posed by Islamic State. The biggest challenge is timely intelligence, and perhaps their biggest weapon is ordinary people, who are fed up with the carnage.

That resentment recently stirred the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which was established in the 1920s when Wahhabism — an austere Sunni brand of Islam based in Saudi Arabia — was spreading its influence across the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden was an adherent.

Nahdlatul Ulama boasts a membership of 50 million Sunni Muslims across Indonesia who, unlike bin Laden’s followers, are now conducting an anti-extremism campaign and loudly denouncing Islamic State.

With Islamic State largely still in its Syrian homeland, Mr. Kerry said he was optimistic that the Sunnylands summit would provide ASEAN leaders with a chance to discuss blocking Islamic State gains in Southeast Asia.

Others, however, were less sanguine.

“After 15 years of fighting on battlefields around the world, the West still does not have a coherent long-term policy with an attainable political objective,” said Mr. Maguire, the North Carolina researcher.

“There are limits to the use of force, and we have reached them. The only real solutions will be political, and until the West has the stomach to face them, these types of attacks will become increasingly common around the world,” he said.

washingtontimes.com

Malaysians have been reminded to be wary of the serious threat posed by the Daesh militant group, online.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr Ashraf Wajdi Dusuki said this was because Daesh has no specific organizational structure.

“Previously, if we arrest a leader or member of a militant group, the group will be eradicated. However, it is different with Daesh as the people can be influenced just by watching their propaganda, online,” he told reporters after opening an Islamic Development seminar and presenting letters of appointment to 337 Kelas Agama and Fardu Ain (KAFA) teachers here, Sunday.

Ashraf Wajdi said the people must be wary of happenings in their vicinity to curb the spread of the Daesh ideology in this country.

“We must tackle this issue holistically and not just rely on the security forces and the law. We have to become a part of this team,” he added.

bernama.com

Attempts by Daesh militants to spread their ideology among Muslims in the volatile provinces of southern Thailand have failed.

“As of now there is no evidence that they have managed to create a unit like the freedom fighters in the south (of Thailand). It remains just an idea,” said an expert on southern Thailand affairs, Prof Dr Jaran Maluleem.

He told Bernama that one reason for the failure to win hearts and minds was revulsion for the atrocities that Daesh had committed.

Furthermore, the struggle of the Thai Muslims was very much localised and was not religious in nature, Jaran said.

Jaran, who is political science professor at Bangkok’s Thammasat University, said the Daesh effort to recruit Thai Muslims began last year.

He said that a key player in the recruitment drive was a “religious figure” who had been giving talks and sermons to propagate the teachings of the terrorist group.

Jaran added: “I was informed that he had been openly saying that we should be praying for IS (Daesh) to fight back (against Western imperialism). He wanted to incite people into supporting (Daesh).

“He had also been appearing in a programme of a television station in southern Thailand.”

Jaran said that Daesh attracted many people at first, but as the group committed endless attrocities, especially against civilians, its influence began to wane. “The Muslims in the south just could not accept the violence.”

Jaran, who was advisor on Muslim affairs to former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was interviewed after he gave a talk at a seminar on “Terror, from Paris to Jakarta” at the university.

After the Jakarta attack, which was blamed on the local affiliate of Daesh called “Katibah Nusantara”, the Thai authorities were said to fear that the southern provinces could be a breeding ground for the terrorist group.

Their concern grew with a report alleging that three people with suspected links to Daesh met religious leaders in Narathiwat late last year.

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was quoted in the local media as saying that he had asked the authorities to follow up on the matter.

According to the local media, intelligence sources identified the three suspects as an Indonesian, a Malaysian and a Singaporean who handed out donations to a local mosque and asked that students be taught about Daesh.

Although Daesh had failed in the southern provinces, Jaran said he shared the worry that the terrorists won’t stop trying to push their twisted ideology in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei.

bernama.com

Some 44 militants have been killed amid cleanup operations conducted by Afghan security forces since early Saturday, the country’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

A total of 27 militants were wounded and one militant was arrested by Afghan army, police and intelligence agency personnel during the operations which were launched in Day Mirdad district of Wardak, Maiwand district of Kandahar, Sangin district of Helmand and Dand-e-Ghori district of Baghlan province respectively, the ministry said in a statement.

The security forces also seized weapons and defused several roadside bombs and landmines, said the statement that provides daily operational updates.

The statement also confirmed the loss of three army personnel over the same period.

Afghan security forces have pressed on clearing the militants in restive provinces.

The Taliban responds by bombing and armed attacks.

On Saturday, four security force members, including a district police chief, were killed after a roadside bomb struck a security force convoy in Sirkano district of eastern Kunar province.

xinhuanet.com