A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan Special Forces base in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four commandos, officials said, as violence continued to escalate following the collapse of peace talks between the United States and Taliban insurgents, like reported by reuters.com.

The bomber blew up an explosives-laden minibus at the entrance to the camp in Chahar Asyab district, killing the four special forces members and wounding another three, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, which he said killed more than 200 commandos. The insurgents routinely issue exaggerated casualty claims.

Mujahid said the bomber had been infiltrated into the base well before the attack.

The latest attack underscored expectations of an escalation in violence following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sudden cancellation of the talks with the Taliban aimed at withdrawing U.S. troops and ending 18 years of war in Afghanistan.

Last week, a Taliban suicide blast killed at least 10 civilians and two NATO service members near the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

The United States has added Abu Sayyaff sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who is said to be the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Philippines, to its list of global terrorists, like reported by rappler.com.

Along with Sawadjaan, a female named Almaida Marani Salvin was also included in the US Treasury’s sanctions blacklist. Salvin was said to have “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support ” to ISIS-Philippines.

Sawadjaan is at large while Salvin was arrested in April this year in Zamboanga City.

Philippine intelligence sources said Salvin is the wife of Abu Talha, who is Sawadjaan’s operations officer and key to various fund transfers for local terrorists.

Sawadjaan and Salvin were part of the US’ latest list of global terrorists released on the eve of the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the US. The updated list is in line US President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order, which aimed to “modernize and strengthen” authorities to combat terrorism.

The recent series of “suicide bombings” in Sulu have been attributed to the pro-ISIS Abu-Sayyaf faction led by Sawadjaan.

These included the latest blast in Indanan town on Sunday, September 8, in which only the attacker was killed. Earlier this year, twin blasts at a Catholic church in Jolo, Sulu, killed at least 23 people and wounded over 100. Another twin attack killed at least 7 people at the gates of an Army camp in Indanan, Sulu, on June 28.

Sawadjaan was also said to be behind another fatal attack in July 2018 when a van exploded at a military checkpoint in the outskirts of Lamitan, Basilan, killing at least 10 people.

The US State Department named Sawadjaan, along with 12 other leaders of foreign terrorist groups “specially designated global terrorist.” Effectively, this means that all property and interests in property subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.

Salvin, meanwhile, was reported to have assisted ISIS Philippines. In April 2019, Salvin was arrested in Zamboanga City for possession of explosive devices and bank accounts and passbooks linked to ISIS-Philippines funding.

Police had said Salvin also facilitated the recruitment and travel of foreign fighters to the Philippines.

Significant executive order: According to the US State Department, Trump’s executive order “is the most significant update of terrorist designation authorities since the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.”

The order, it added, will also allow US authorities to “more effectively sanction the leaders of terrorist organizations and those who train to commit acts of terrorism.”

Meanwhile, the US Treasury said the new executive order served to “consolidate US counterterrorism authorities under a single sanctions program.”

“This new authority serves to put all foreign financial institutions on notice that enabling terrorists and their financial backers to rely upon the international financial system to facilitate their malign activities will have consequences,” the Treasury said.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Islamic State extremist group remains resilient in Afghanistan despite “a high pace” of operations against it by government and international forces — and is urging all armed groups not to interfere in the upcoming presidential election, like reported by time.com .

The U.N. chief said in a report to the Security Council circulated Monday that between mid-June and early September 183 incidents were attributed to Islamic State fighters — nearly double the 93 incidents during the same period in 2018.

Guterres’ report was written before U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended a nearly yearlong effort to reach a political settlement with the Taliban on Saturday. Trump said Monday that U.S. peace talks with the Taliban were now “dead.”

In the report, the secretary-general says the U.S.-Taliban talks, a dialogue between Afghan parties in Qatar and strengthened efforts “to build a regional consensus on peace have given rise to cautious optimism that a formal peace process may soon begin.”

Guterres cautioned, however, that a peace process could only be sustained if it is inclusive, protects the rights of all Afghans, and is “grounded in a broad consensus.” He reiterated his call for direct talks between the Taliban and the government, which the Taliban has rejected.

The secretary-general said Afghanistan’s “volatile security situation is highly concerning,” citing direct threats to the presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28 “by anti-government elements that may discourage many Afghans from voting.”

Guterres called on the Taliban and other armed groups, including Islamic State, “to desist from threatening or targeting electoral staff, candidates or voters.” He also urged anti-government forces to refrain from damaging electoral sites and to allow the Afghan people “to exercise their political rights in safety and without fear of violence.”

The secretary-general said the winner of the presidential election will take on “the hefty responsibility of leading the country through the next phase of its journey towards stability and self-reliance and, above all, of pursuing a negotiated settlement to end the devastating conflict.”

But what will happen now that the U.S.-Taliban deal appears dead, at least for the foreseeable future, remains to be seen. The Security Council is scheduled to discuss Guterres’ report Tuesday.

Guterres appealed to all Afghan leaders and candidates “to display leadership in discouraging fraud and to take firm action to prevent it.” He said the election “must be contested on a level playing field, without unduly favoring any candidate.”

He welcomed the public commitments of President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah — both candidates for the top job — to contest the election fairly.

He also noted the steps taken by the government to separate functions of the state from the presidential race. But, he added, “At the same time, allegations of misuse of state resources and perceptions of interference in the work of the electoral management bodies are concerning.”

Guterres urged candidates not to make “spurious or sweeping allegations of fraud without sufficient evidence,” but to report serious allegation to appropriate authorities.

“Those who attempt or commit fraud must be held to account,” he said.

At least 14 people were killed and 145 others wounded in a deadly blast that ripped through a busy neighborhood in the western edge of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Wednesday, Deputy to Interior Ministry General Khoshal Sadat said.

“I can confirm the death of 14 people and 145 others injured in the terrorist attack in Kabul this morning,” Sadat told a press conference.

The official blamed the “enemies of Afghanistan” for the attack and said the security forces would continue to target the enemies elsewhere in the country.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses and unofficial sources believed that the casualties were higher than reported.

The blast occurred at around 9:00 a.m. local time after a militant rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the front gate of district police station in Police District 6, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

Dozens of houses, shops and buildings were destroyed or badly damaged due to the massive explosion, the official added.

The Taliban group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The security forces conducted airstrikes target a gathering of Taliban and their fighting positions in Balkh province, like reported by khaama.com.

The 209th Shaheen Corps said in a statement that the security forces conducted the airstrikes in Zara district of Balkh.

The statement further added that the airstrikes killed 20 Taliban militants and wounded several others.

Furthermore, the 209th Shaheen Corps said the airstrikes also destroyed an explosives and weapons cache, a Dshk heavy machine gun and several Improvised Explosive Devices.

The Taliban group has not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.

A total of 20 militants have been confirmed dead as security forces launched cleanup operations in Charchino district of the southern Uruzgan province on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting an army spokesman Abdul Ghafar Nuristani.

The operations, according to the official, launched on Tuesday night in parts of Charchino district and so far 20 armed militants had been killed and several others injured.

According to Nuristani, the operations would last until law and order return to the restive district. The Taliban militants are yet to comment on the situation.

Meanwhile a total of 18 militants have been killed as fighting aircraft targeted Taliban positions in parts of beleaguered Eshkamish district in the northern Takhar province, provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hajari said Wednesday.

Ten more insurgents have been injured in the sorties launched late Tuesday night, the official added.

The Taliban militants are yet to comment on the situation.

A suicide bombing at a wedding party in Kabul claimed by a local Islamic State affiliate has renewed fears about the growing threat posed by its thousands of fighters, as well as their ability to plot global attacks from a stronghold in the forbidding mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, like reported by fresnobee.com.

The attack came as the Taliban appear to be nearing a deal with the U.S. to end nearly 18 years of fighting. Now Washington hopes the Taliban can help rein in IS fighters, even as some worry that Taliban fighters, disenchanted by a peace deal, could join IS.

The U.S. envoy in talks with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, says the peace process must be accelerated to put Afghanistan in a “much stronger position to defeat” the Islamic State affiliate. On Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vowed to “eliminate” all IS safe havens.

Here’s a look at IS in Afghanistan, a militant group some U.S. officials have said could pose a greater threat to America than the more established Taliban.

A ‘PROVINCE’ OF THE CALIPHATE

The Islamic State affiliate appeared in Afghanistan shortly after the group’s core fighters swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, carving out a self-styled caliphate, or Islamic empire, in around a third of both countries. The Afghan affiliate refers to itself as the Khorasan Province, a name applied to parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia during the Middle Ages.

Despite IS’ defeat in its Iraqi and Syrian heartlands, the extremist group has reverted to staging frequent insurgency-type attacks in both countries against security forces and civilians.

In a report to the United Nations Security Council earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said IS has been left with as much as $300 million following the loss of its so-called caliphate, “with none of the financial demands of controlling territory and population.” He warned that the lull in IS-directed international attacks “may be temporary” and said Afghanistan remains the best-established conflict zone among those attracting foreign extremist fighters from within the region.

The IS affiliate in Afghanistan initially numbered just a few dozen fighters, mainly Pakistani Taliban driven from their bases across the border and disgruntled Afghan Taliban attracted to IS’ more extreme ideology.

While the Taliban have confined their struggle to Afghanistan, the IS militants pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the reclusive leader of the group in the Middle East, and embraced his call for a worldwide jihad against non-Muslims.

The Afghan affiliate suffered some early setbacks as its leaders were picked off by U.S. airstrikes. But it received a major boost when the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan joined its ranks in 2015. Today, the U.N. says it numbers between 2,500 and 4,000 fighters, many from Central Asia but also from Arab countries, Chechnya, India and Bangladesh, as well as ethnic Uighurs from China.

Within Afghanistan, IS has launched large-scale attacks on minority Shiites, who it views as apostates deserving of death. The group said Saturday’s attack on the wedding targeted a large Shiite gathering, although the celebration was in fact a mixed crowd of Shiites and Sunnis, according to the event hall’s owner, Hussain Ali. The bombing killed at least 63 people and wounded nearly 200 more.

IS is seen as an even greater threat than the Taliban because of its increasingly sophisticated military capabilities and its strategy of targeting civilians, both in Afghanistan and abroad.

Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, sees Afghanistan as a possible new base for IS. It has invested “a disproportionate amount of attention and resources in Afghanistan,” he said earlier this year, pointing to “huge arms stockpiling” in the country’s east.

THREATENING THE WEST

Authorities have made at least eight arrests in the United States linked to the IS affiliate in Afghanistan. One was Martin Azizi-Yarand, the 18-year-old Texan who plotted a 2018 attack on a suburban mall and who said he was inspired by IS and was preparing to join the affiliate.

The group’s brutal tactics have been on vivid display inside Afghanistan for years. Residents who fled areas captured by the group describe a reign of terror not unlike the one seen in Syria and Iraq at the height of IS’s power.

The Afghan affiliate has been based in eastern Nangarhar province, a rugged region along the border with Pakistan, but it also has a strong presence in northern Afghanistan and has of late expanded into neighboring Kunar province, where it could prove even harder to dislodge. The mountainous province provided shelter for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for nearly a year following the Taliban’s ouster from power in late 2001, and U.S. forces struggled for years to capture and hold high-altitude outposts there.

TURNING TO THE TALIBAN

In recent months the Taliban have said they have no ambitions to monopolize power in a post-war Afghanistan, while IS is committed to overthrowing the Kabul government on its path to establishing a global caliphate.

The Taliban and IS are sharply divided over ideology and tactics, with the Taliban largely confining their attacks to government targets and Afghan and international security forces. The Taliban and IS have fought each other on a number of occasions, and the Taliban are still the larger and more imposing force. They’re currently at their strongest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and effectively control half the country.

Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, has held several rounds of talks with the Taliban in recent months in a bid to end America’s longest war. The two sides appear to be closing in on an agreement in which the U.S. would withdraw its forces in return for a pledge from the Taliban to keep the country from being used as a launch pad for global attacks.

But a deal could prompt an exodus of more radical Taliban fighters to join IS. That process is already underway in parts of northern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban have attacked IS only to lose territory and fighters to the rival extremist group.

The Afghan Special Forces arrested a key Haqqani terrorist network member during an operation in Kabul city, like reported by khaama.com.

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said in a statement that the Special Forces of the Afghan National Police conducted the raid in the 9th district of Kabul.

The statement further added that the detained Haqqani network member has been identified as Sardar Mohammad alias Khalifa Daud.

Furthermore, the interior ministry said Sardar was responsible for facilitating the supply of weapons, munitions and military kits to Taliban and other militants.

The anti-government armed militants including Taliban and Haqqani network have not commented regarding the report so far.

The Afghan Special Forces destroyed a training center of the suicide bombers during an operation in central Logar province, like reported by khaama.com.

The 203rd Thunder Corps said in a statement the Special Forces destroyed the suicide bombers training center in Tagab area of Baraki Barak district.

The statement further added that the Special Forces also killed 8 Taliban militants during the same operation.

Furthermore, the 203rd Thunder Corps said the Taliban militants were also using the compound as a storage depot of weapons, munitions and explosives.

At least 11 Taliban fighters including two key commanders of the group were killed in an Afghan forces operation in Zurmat district of the eastern province of Paktia, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said in a statement on Monday, like reported by tolonews.com.

Different types of weapons and explosive devices were seized in the operation, the statement said.

No civilians casualties occured during the operation, the statement added.

Taliban has not commented on the operation.