A Islamist suicide bomber launched an attack riding a motorbike against an Afghan bank building in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, according to reports by U.S. and Afghan officials. The bomb blast left at least 35 people dead and over a hundred wounded in an attack described by the war torn country’s president as being the handiwork of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Obama’s former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, during an appearance on Fox News Channel, has said that while the administration was boasting that al-Qaida was on the run, the DIA was reporting to President Obama that it was far from being on the run. He also said Obama was informed that al-Qaida was growing and morphing into a larger, more powerful organization. However, according to Islamic terrorism expert James Peter Gronsky, that didn’t fit into the presidential narrative, so — with the help of Obama’s fellow-travelers in the news media — they intentionally lied to the American public.

This attack is a major event since it’s the first to have been perpetrated by the massive terrorist network that occupies one-third of the Arab countries of Iraq and Syria. ISIS has in fact declared its occupied territory as its first caliphate. What U.S. counter-terrorism analysts find disturbing is that ISIS is adding a deadly twist to the Afghan security forces’ battle against the Taliban and other jihadists as the U.S. and NATO forces have all but ended their combat missions.

“While President Barack Obama and the Pentagon tell the American people that ISIS is now in decline as a power to be reckoned with, the truth of the matter is that ISIS is actually growing in size and power,” said Edward Clonhague, a former police department’s intelligence officer. “There are reports that ISIS is involved in terrorist activity in Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, and other countries,” Clonhague said.

The ISIS attack in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, was aimed at a group of soldiers and civilians had been gathering outside the bank to obtain their government paychecks. The blast killed at least 35 people and wounded another 125, according to government statements.

Within a few hours following the sneak attack, President Ashraf Ghani blamed the Islamic State group for the bombing. “In the horrific incident in Nangarhar, who took responsibility? The Taliban didn’t claim responsibility. “Daesh” claimed responsibility for it,” Ghani said. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Besides ISIS taking credit for the Kabal bombing, the Taliban’s leaders quickly denied it was responsible for this latest attack and another perpetrated elsewhere in the province in which one civilian died and two others were seriously wounded. “We condemn/deny involvement in both,” the Taliban’s Zabiullah Mujahid stated in a social media entry.

While the Obama administration is silent on ISIS activity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other countries that already were being targeted by radical Muslim organizations, President Ghani claims he had already warned President Barack Obama even before ISIS began to establish a presence in Afghanistan and actually enticed members of the Taliban to join their Islamist group. He claims that during his U.S. visit last month had repeated his military’s warnings that this expanding extremist group was becoming more and more powerful and prolific in Afghanistan.

President Ghani also blasted an attack on an army installation which 18 soldiers dead including the eight who were beheaded. Although ISIS didn’t claim responsibility, Ghani blamed the killings on what he termed “international terrorists.” He claims as a rule the Taliban don’t intentionally decapitate prisoners. Meanwhile, United Nations’ Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic called the attack a war crime.

“The use of suicide bombs and other devices in such an indiscriminate way by insurgent groups clearly constitutes a war crime, and those responsible for organizing or perpetrating such attacks must be brought to justice,” he said in a statement released on Saturday.

United Nations officials claim that the number of ISIS supporters in the Afghan-Pakistan region is smaller than other terrorist groups and they may face resistance from strong tribal leaders or Shiite Muslims. “However, the presence in Afghanistan of just a small ISIS cell or cells could increase the destabilization of the U.S. and NATO plan to end their roles in what Obama and the Democrats had called the “good war.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is prepared to cooperate with Afghanistan to normalize the situation in the country as well as work with Kabul and international partners in the fight against terrorism.

Indonesia is taking its battle against support for the Islamic State terror group into cyberspace, with the government blocking 22 websites it says contained radical content.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said it had blocked the websites to stop the spread of radical propaganda. The ban was based on a request from the National Agency for Counterterrorism, the ministry said on its website.

Last week, Communications Minister Rudiantara, who goes by only one name, told The Wall Street Journal that the government had already blocked more than 70 websites considered to be trying to build support for Islamic State.

“What we are doing right now is something we have to address immediately; it’s very critical,” he said, referring to efforts to find and block such websites.

Concerns that a growing number of Indonesians are showing support for the Islamic State in Syria, sometimes referred to as ISIS, have cropped up in recent months, particularly after a group of Indonesians was detained trying to cross the border between Turkey and Syria and another was reported missing.

Police and government officials say they worry that ISIS could be creating a renewed sense of militancy among some radical groups in Indonesia, and patrolling the Internet is one of several measures they’re taking to counter the threat.

Indonesia already monitors online content through a decree issued last year aimed at blocking material it deems negative, such as pornography. Mr. Rudiantara says it monitors content through an automatic search engine and reports from the public.

He says the ministry is working closely with the National Counterterrorism Agency. It is also working to form panels of advisers that include prominent religious figures, which can provide recommendations on how to deal with negative content, said Mr. Rudiantara.

Even then, security officials and analysts say online recruitment isn’t the real problem. All the material online is reinforcing the desire of some people to go [to Syria], said Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). “But in some ways, it’s the personal messages on social media and between and among some of the existing radical networks that is driving some people to go.”

She says the people going to join ISIS are almost all linked to existing extremist networks, and the police too say face-to-face contact is more successful in recruiting supporters than the Internet.

Some in the public, meanwhile, took to social media Tuesday to voice displeasure with the ministry’s move. The hashtag #KembalikanMediaIslam, or Return Islamic Media, was the top trending hashtag in Indonesia as of Tuesday afternoon and one of the top trending terms worldwide. Some messages questioned the ministry’s definition of radical, calling the move Islamophobic.

Concerns about the use of the Internet and social media to recruit supporters for extremist groups such as ISIS have gained prominence in recent weeks, particularly after a video started circulating last month that showed young Bahasa-speaking boys in an undisclosed location training to perform jihad.

“ISIS and its affiliates have been very, very good about making use of social media and YouTube to try to push forth their propaganda, and they’ve been doing it in Bahasa Indonesia,” said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security consultant.

At least 59 people, including 22 security personnel, have been killed in the northern Badakhshan and Saripul provinces since Friday, officials said.

In its most violent offensive, the Taliban militants stormed the bases of Afghan forces in Jarm district of Badakhshan province on Friday and killed at least 22 security personnel, some of them beheaded.

“In the clash which happened in Khostak area of Jarm district on Friday and lasted for several hours, nine Afghan soldiers and three police had been killed and some 10 others were beheaded,” head of Badakhshan Provincial Council Abdullah Naji Nazari told Xinhua.

During the clash, 27 militants including some foreigners had been killed, the official said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said in a statement that it killed and injured some 90 securing personnel in Khostak area of Jarm district, Badakhshan province, days ago.

The killing of security forces in Jarm district of Badakhshan province has prompted lawmakers to question the security officials about the attack.

The Commission for National Security and Defense of parliament in an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday summoned Interior Minister General Nurul Haq Alumi, chief of army staff General Shir Mohammad Karimi and national spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil for clarification of security forces’ setback in Badakhshan.

According to parliamentarian Hajji Almas who lashed out at government for failure in Badakhshan, 62 security personnel, including army and police, had been killed in Jarm district of Badakhshan after nine hours of fighting but those at the helm of defense and interior ministries had done nothing.

Some of the lawmakers criticized the in-charges of security sectors and demanded their resignation and punishment.

Moreover, Afghan security forces have killed 10 Taliban militants and injured five others in the northern Saripul province since Friday, deputy to provincial police chief Anayatullah Azizi said Tuesday.

“Units of security forces launched operations against Taliban militants in Qala-e-Sokhta area outside provincial capital of Saripul city on Friday evening and so far 10 rebels have been killed and five others injured,” Nazari told Xinhua.

Taliban militants had been evicted from 30 villages, the official said, adding the operations would last till the restoration of peace and stability in the area.

The Taliban group hasn’t made any comment.

A senior Taliban commander among three was killed in an early morning drone strike in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, wrote Khaama.

Abdul Habib Sayedkhili, police chief of Kunar province says that the drone targeted militant hideouts in Dara-i-Pech District around 06:00 AM this morning.

He said three Taliban including Mullah Abid, a senior commander of the group, were killed in the strike.

He said that civilians were not harmed during the air strike.

In the meantime, Sayedkhili says security forces are trying to reopen the road passing through Ghazi Abad and Nari districts which is blocked by Taliban since Friday. But he said that anyone trying to reopen the road, Taliban fire on them.

He said that the road is also used by the residents of Kamdish and Bargmatal districts of neighboring Nooristan province, adding that the blockade has also created problems for the people of Nooristan province.

Hafiz Abdul Qayoum, governor of Nooristan province asked central government to make necessary arrangement to reopen the road.

Kunar is a mountainous area in the eastern part of the country which does not have good medical treatment centers. Villagers of remote areas including Ghazi Abad and Nari districts come to Jalalabad, provincial capital of Nangarhar province, when there are serious health issues.