At least 24 militants were killed in two separate US drone strikes in North Waziristan and Pakistan, Afghanistan border on Saturday.

At least four militants, including a top commander of the banned Tehrek-e-Taliban Pakistan, were killed and several others were injured in a US drone strike in the Mangrooti area of the North Waziristan.

The target of the drone strike was a militant hideout at Mangrooti, a village situated on boundaries of North Waziristan with Afghanistan in snow-covered Shawal mountainous region in Data Khel Tehsil.

The deceased included Maulana Noor Saeed belonging to Jani Khel, Frontier Region. However, identities of other militants killed in the strikes couldn’t be ascertained as yet.

Earlier today at least 20 militants were killed in a US drone strike near the Pakistan, Afghanistan border. Officials said the militants were suspected to belong to the Islamic State militant group.

The suspects were killed in a drone targeting militant hideouts in Nangarhar’s Nazyan district. Several militant hideouts were also destroyed in the attack.

There have been several drone strikes near the Pak-Afghan border in the past with recent targets being IS hideouts. Nazyan is one of the two districts left under the control of the militant group as it recently lost control of two districts in Nangarhar province.

Earlier this week, the Taliban captured a stronghold of the IS’s Khurasan chapter in the Afghan province of Nangarhar after three days of fierce fighting that claimed over 150 lives on both sides.

Saad Muradi, a front-line man of IS, also known by its Arabic acronym Da’ish, was also killed in the three-day long battle, according to officials monitoring the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency. “The Taliban now control Batitkot and Chaparyal areas which were captured over the last two days while Nazyan fell today,” one official said.

Banned TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah had survived a drone strike in Nazyan, while several IS fighters have been killed in the region in the US drone campaign. Local sources confirmed the development, saying more than 2,500 Taliban fighters were involved in the battle. They added that over 150 fighters were killed in fighting which is ongoing. “Of them, 35 are Taliban fighters.”

tribune.com.pk

A senior Taliban leader has been killed along with several other militants in northeastern Takhar province of Afghanistan as the Afghan national security forces intensify operations to retake control of Darqad district.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said at least 17 Taliban militants have been killed so far as several parts of Darqad has been cleared since the opertion was launched on Friday.

MoI further added that the Taliban group’s shadow district governor for Khwajah Bahauddin was also among those killed during the operations.

The Afghan national security forces have not suffered any casualties as the clearing the operations are successfully behing conducted, MoI added.

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

Takhar is among the relatively volatile provinces in northeastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed militants are actively operating in a number of its remote districts.

Takhar is surrounded by two relatively volatile provinces, Badakhshan in the east and Kunduz in the west where Taliban militants are actively operating and frequently carry out insurgency activities in their various districts.

khaama.com

Named as Shakti-2016, India and France launched today an eight- days joint military exercise in the western state of Rajasthan, focused on the anti-terrorist and anti-guerrilla fight.

A statement from the Indian Army states that the French contingent is made up of 56 soldiers that belong to the 35A Infantry Regiment of the Seventh Armored Brigade of the European nation, deployed in the past in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nationally, added the statement, troops of the second battalion of Garhwal Rifles are also involved.

The maneuvers include target and combat practices as well as tactical operation, which are an important step to exchange experience between both armed forces, highlighted the text.

The exercise, the third of its kind between the two countries, will end in an exercise to clear a rural and an urban area of terrorist.

plenglish.com

Seventeen Islamic State (Daesh) fighters were killed during a drone strike by foreign troops in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Friday, an official said.

The airstrike came as Daesh militants beheaded seven Taliban and an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier in front of a mosque after Juma prayers in the Maktab village of Achin district.

A resident of the area, Abdul Qayyum, told Pajhwok Afghan News the group’s supporters publicly decapitated the eight men. A large of villagers had gathered to watch the beheading.

A large number of Daesh members and civilians suffered casualties in the strike, he said, without giving exact figures.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar governor, confirmed the drone attack in the district near the Pakistani border. However, he had no information about fatalities and injuries.

A security official in the district, meanwhile, confided to Pajhwok the raid left at least Islamic State rebels dead. The fatalities included a Pakistani doctor, he revealed.

With Taliban and Daesh yet to comment on the incident, the source said two civilians were wounded in the airstrike. He also verified the eight beheadings.

pajhwok.com

The past year hasn’t been kind to the Afghan security forces, who have suffered record casualties after taking the lead in the fighting.

With Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) dominating headlines in 2015, Afghanistan went back to being America’s forgotten war. That made it easier to ignore the fact that the Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001.

With the United States and Nato troops ending their combat mission in the country, the Taliban is attacking Afghanistan’s security personnel on multiple fronts. And while the US-trained Afghan troops are in many areas fighting harder than in Iraq, the result has nevertheless been a string of defeats and steady militant gains.

To make matters worse, Daesh has also steadily expanded its presence in Afghanistan, battling it out with the Taliban in the country’s east, while importing some of the brutal tactics it honed in Iraq and Syria.

The past year hasn’t been kind to the Afghan security forces, who have suffered record casualties after taking the lead in the fighting. The Taliban also quickly rushed in to take advantage of the space created by Nato closing hundreds of combat outposts across the country, clawing back hard-won ground in the country’s south, north and east.

After the dramatic drawdown in the number of US and Nato troops, the Taliban were bound to seize ground as those forces withdrew. “When you go from 100,000 troops down to about 10,000, there should be no surprise that there’s a consequence in the security situation,” said Andrew Wilder of the US Institute of Peace.

The group’s recent gains prompted the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, US Army General John Campbell, to consider asking for yet another extension to the American mission. The current plan is to draw down to about 5,500 troops by the end of 2016, but Campbell wants to keep as many of the 9,800 US troops currently deployed for as long as possible. Nato allies, which currently contribute another 4,000 troops, have yet to announce any long-term plan for the country.

Many of the Taliban’s gains have been in the south and east. In southern Helmand province, the insurgents have seized control of the districts of Musa Qala and Nawzad and are threatening Sangin — the scene of so much bloody fighting by American and British forces over the past decade.

Taliban militants are even squeezing Helmand’s provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. To the north of the country, the Taliban scored a major victory in September when they captured the city of Kunduz in Kunduz province. Although Afghan forces retook the city in mid-October, the fall of the city marked a major psychological setback for the Kabul government, underscoring the fragile security situation in major cities once considered safe.

It also dealt a black eye to the US, which has been struggling with the aftermath of the carnage caused by an American AC-130 gunship mistakenly attacking a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the city. The aid group estimates that at least 42 staffers and patients were killed and has called the incident a war crime.

Still, it’s far too soon to conclude that the Taliban will be able to keep control of all of the territory it has taken. Local politics is fluid and government forces, backed by US airpower, have shown an ability to hit back hard. That makes one thing clear: This year will be another bloody one in a country all too accustomed to war.

gulfnews.com

As many as 140 Taliban militants have been killed in Marjah town located in Helmand province when Afghan security forces mounted counter-terror operations. Authorities say most parts of the southern province have come under their control following the offensive.

In the dusty agricultural town of Marjah, the initial anti-terror operation which was led by foreign forces was later strengthened by the Afghan troops. Provincial police chief Brigadier General Abdul Rahman Sarjang told reporters clashes were still on in the restive districts.

“We have had a lot of achievements from this operation and we will continue until we free Marjah from Taliban,” said the police official. Sarjang added that a key route – which was blocked due to terrorist activity for nearly two years – leading to Marjah has been freed.

Sarjang said aerial and ground troops coordinated the counter-offensive against the Taliban insurgents and insisted most of the districts have been fortified so as to prevent a comeback by the extremists. Local reports suggest Afghan forces were initially hesitant to press on but were later encouraged by the foreign troops’ onslaught. Taliban has, however, denied Marjah has been retaken by Afghan forces.

Fighting has been intense in recent days after the Taliban militants launched a surprise attack in the volatile Helmand province – yet again underscoring the challenges faced by security forces against the backdrop of the withdrawal of US and UK military personnel.

On 5 January, an American soldier was killed and two others were injured in Marjah in a battle. A US rescue helicopter was also brought down while another one was waved off due to heavy ground fire.

ibtimes.co.uk

The Defense Ministry of Sri Lanka said that the military and security forces are today on alert to prevent potential terrorist attacks by the Islamic State (IS), but denied the presence of the organization in the country.

There are no need to panic to media reports on alleged IS cells in the nation, said a statement from the ministry.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Karunasena Hettiarachchi revealed that at least 36 Sri Lankans, including women and children, traveled to Syria to join the radical group accused of many crimes.

However, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the armed body received no information about it.

The press revealed in July last year that a national, identified as Abu Shuraih Saylani, was killed in an air strike in Iraq while fighting in the IS ranks.

Saylani was a karate teacher in the town of Galewela, in the Central Province, but he resigned for allegedly pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, though he actually traveled to Syria.

According to official figures, about 10 per cent of the 20 million Sri Lankans are Muslim.

plenglish.com

A new special force to fight Daesh (Islamic State) terrorists and their supporters was set up in Afghanistan, the country’s Defense Ministry announced Thursday.

The new special military unit will mainly focus on countering the radical groups’ insurgency in the east of the country, Afghan Defense Minister Masoom Stanekzai said as cited by Khaama Press agency.

At least 30 militants have been killed and many others wounded in clashes between Taliban and Daesh in eastern Nangarhar province, officials said on Wednesday.

Attaullah Khogyani, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News 18 militants including two IS commanders, Ajmal and Abdul Ahad, were killed and four others wounded on Wednesday in the 4th Farm area of the Batikot district.

Similarly, a Taliban commander was among five fighters killed in another firefight in the Maidanak area of Achin district on Tuesday night, he said. Four Taliban and seven Daesh fighters were wounded.

pajhwok.com

Fresh fighting has broken out in recent days between the Taliban and the Islamic State group (aka ISIS) in Afghanistan, resulting in dozens of deaths on both sides, Voice of America reported Tuesday. Battles between the two rival militant groups erupted after hundreds of Taliban fighters launched assaults against ISIS bases earlier this week.

The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, took control of at least two districts in eastern Afghanistan from ISIS, but failed to drive the group out of their stronghold in the Nazyan district. The Iraq and Syria-based extremist group, ISIS, has made inroads in the war-torn country in recent months, using its hold on the Nangarhar province to push deeper into the country. Last month, the Taliban launched its own radio station to aid in recruitment.

Although the Taliban also has seen gains in Afghanistan in recent years, its leadership has been in disarray since August, when its former leader, Mullah Omar, was confirmed dead. The news created a power vacuum and led to a split in the group.

In recent months, the Taliban has viewed ISIS as a threat to its campaign against NATO forces in Afghanistan. The rift within the Taliban was expected to help ISIS expand its influence, as some members have reportedly defected from the Taliban to join ISIS.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the clashes between the Taliban and ISIS fighters, Voice of America said, but did not offer further detail. Pakistani media outlets reportedly quoted officials confirming the Taliban attacks on ISIS fighters in Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. They said more than 150 fighters – mostly ISIS supporters – were killed.

Afghanistan has seen widening violence in recent months, and in October, U.S. President Barack Obama pushed back a planned military withdrawal date. Al Qaeda, a longtime U.S. enemy, has also seen a revival in the region, the New York Times reported, with new training camps sprouting up recently.

ibtimes.com