The celebrations of Eid-Al-Adha was marred by violence in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar city when stone pelters came out on the streets and waved flags of Pakistan and dreaded terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), like reported by deccanchronicle.com.

In a bid to disrupt peace, the demonstrators chanted slogans and clashed with police personnel on duty in Srinagar’s Eidgah area, soon after Eid prayers. They also pelted stones on security personnel, who were trying to disperse them.

In another incident, a policeman was shot dead by terrorists outside an Eidgah in Kulgam’s Zazripora, when he was leaving after offering prayers.

Earlier in May, a tourist from Tamil Nadu’s Chennai had lost his life in stone-pelting, a few days after the vehicle of a district judge from Bengaluru, who was on a holiday with his family, was pelted with stones. Around the same time, a bus carrying school students was also attacked by unruly stone-pelters in Zawoora village of Shopian district.

The rampant incidents of stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir have become a matter of concern for the state administration, with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman condemning the same, saying that although the armed forces cannot be held responsible for being firm with terrorists, it is extremely important to ensure safer movement of tourists to restore normalcy.

Multiple rockets landed near the diplomatic area of Afghan capital Kabul in a series of attacks on Tuesday morning. Two insurgents have been killed so far in clashes with security forces that followed, reported TOLOnews. The clashes are still going on, according to scroll.in.

At least 12 rockets exploded in the area, according to officials. Residents in the area, however, claimed there were 22 explosions.

The attack started at about 9 am (10 am Indian time) when President Ashraf Khani was delivering his message ahead of the Eid-al-Adha festival. The first rocket was fired near the Presidential Palace, and the second near a compound of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the American embassy, according to AP.

Security forces surrounded a house from where they believe the rockets were fired.

“This morning a group of terrorists took over a building in Reka Khana and fired several rockets towards Kabul,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Najib Danish told AFP. “Two people have been wounded. Security are fighting the terrorists.”

Ghani said in response: “If they are thinking the rocket attack will keep Afghans down, they are wrong.”

In a similar attack on July 24, at least three people were injured in a series of rocket explosions in and around a residential area in Kabul. Five rockets were fired in a 75-minute period.

On Sunday, Ghani had declared a “conditional” ceasefire with Taliban militants ahead of the Eid-al-Adha festival. The ceasefire started on Monday and will be in place for around three months, “provided the Taliban reciprocate”, he had said.

As the longest ‘war on terror’ by international community with direct involvement of US is getting nears to its 18 years — efforts to dismantle terrorist financial networks have been remained unshaken as still militants enjoying immense support, like reported by afghanistantimes.af.

Relationships with terrorist and militant groups are integral to many regional countries’ foreign policy.

They are not only sponsors a range of organizations to maintains the capacity to conduct terrorism activities inside Afghanistan, but also send foot fighters to undermine security forces. Such backing in different forms, have helped Taliban and other militant outfits to wage war against security, resulting into security worsening that always ended up with killing of civilians.

Southern province of Ghazni is wise example of it as ministry of defense said Pakistani, Chechen and Arab fighters had been fighting alongside the Taliban who launched their attack in provincial city in the early hours of Friday morning.

The battle for key Afghan city intensified Monday as Afghan forces pushed on with a full-scale onslaught for control of embattled Ghazni and flushing out of Taliban militants, as humanitarian situation is worsening amid food scarcity.

The nature of fighting was unpredictable because as many as 100 Afghan forces and 20 to 30 civilians have been killed during the fighting.

But it doesn’t mean we are weak, in return Afghan forces killed over 200 Taliban fighters. Moreover, 1,000 additional forces including army, police, and Special Forces have been sent to province and began an onslaught from four sides to push and kill the remaining fighters.

Furthermore, Taliban sheltered in civilian houses to save their skin — a move exhibited their weakness at highest level. Moreover, they have positioned in mosques and residential houses, making harder for Afghan security forces who sworn in to protect civilians.

The Afghan security forces are our heroes that leave no stone unturned in safeguarding Afghan masses. Long Live to the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces.

What is irksome is when some Taliban fighters who have joined the peace process, claim that Russia, China and Iran support the militant group.

A group of 50 Taliban militants with their commander Mullah Abdul Ghaffor Toofan, recently reintegrated into civil society in Badghis province, saying Iran, Russia, and China continuingly supporting Taliban.

This is the core reason that Afghanistan still burns in war flames. But avoiding to name Pakistan –the number one sponsor of terrorist groups, is a little bit confusing that even brings legitimacy of the claim under question.

Pakistan is in top of that list. Taliban destroy schools, Taliban destroy mosques, Taliban destroy roads and bridges. They put landmines because they do not want Afghanistan be built.

If such evil forces are being supported by some countries it as though they have committed greats atrocity against Afghan civilians who have been bearing the brunt of casualties for longtime. Instead to supporting vicious circle, let’s help build a peaceful atmosphere and collectively work for better world far from today’s darkest milieu.

The relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the jihadi allies behind the 9/11 attacks on the American homeland, “remains firm” nearly 17 years after the United States declared war on the two terrorist groups in Afghanistan, the United Nations recently reported, like reported by breitbart.com.

In a new report, the U.N. determined that al-Qaeda (or al-Qaida) is “much stronger” than its jihadi rival the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) “in certain places, including Somalia, Yemen, South Asia and the Sahel.”

The U.N. noted that Aiman al-Zawahiri is leading al-Qaeda with the help of “his lieutenants based in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

According to the international body, the Afghanistan-Pakistan region continues to provide sanctuary to the top al-Qaeda leaders, namely Zawahiri and Hamza bin Laden, son of the terrorist group’s late leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. military has repeatedly noted that the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is home to the largest concentration terrorist groups in the world.

U.N. officials reported:

Al-Qaida and its affiliates remain stronger than ISIL in Yemen, Somalia and parts of West Africa, while its alliance with the Taliban and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan remains firm despite rivalry from the local ISIL affiliate…Some [U.N.] Member States see Al-Qaida as a greater long-term challenge to international security than ISIL.

…

Al-Qaida still maintains a presence in South Asia. It adapts to the local environment, trying to embed itself into local struggles and communities. It is closely allied with the Taliban. According to one Member State, although ISIL poses an immediate threat, Al-Qaida is the “intellectually stronger group” and remains a longer-term threat. Some members of the Al-Qaida core, including Aiman al-Zawahiri and Hamza bin Laden, are reported to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas

The U.N. report came as the United States is pushing for peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.

“Reconciliation” between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban has surfaced as the primary goalof U.S. President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the war in Afghanistan that has been raging since October 2001.

The Trump administration has come out in support of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s offer to the Taliban of a ceasefire and official recognition as a political group.

Taliban jihadists currently control or contest more than 40 percent of Afghanistan, according to the most recent assessment by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog agency.

“The Defense Department and other parts of the US government are generally dismissive of the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship. But the UN’s report makes it clear that the ‘alliance’ has survived nearly 17 years of war,” the Long War Journal reported.

Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban have managed to maintain their relationship despite the nearly trillion dollars spent on the war in Afghanistan and the thousands of U.S. military casualties from the ongoing conflict.

“While there is as yet little evidence of a re-emerging direct global threat from Al-Qaida, improved leadership and enhanced communication will probably increase the threat over time, as will any rise in the tendency, already visible in some regions, of ISIL supporters to join Al-Qaida,” the U.N. acknowledged.

The U.N. estimated that the strength of al-Qaeda’s newest affiliate alone, the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), stands “at several hundred people, located in Laghman, Paktika, Kandahar, Ghazni and Zabul provinces.”

Kandahar province, located along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, is considered the birthplace of the Taliban.

Fresh clashes have erupted among the Taliban militants and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) militants in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East said the latest clashes have erupted between the two sides in Deh Bala district.

The source further added that the latest clashes have left one ISIS militant dead so far.

In the meantime, Silab Corps in a statement said the US forces have also conducted an airstrike in Deh Bala district, leaving one ISIS militant dead.

The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban and ISIS loyalists have not commented regarding the report so far.

Nangarhar has been among the relatively calm provinces since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 but the anti-government armed militants have been attempting to expand their foothold in this province during the recent years.

However, the Afghan armed forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations to suppress the militant groups.

This comes as scores of Taliban and ISIS militants were killed during the similar clashes in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan few weeks ago.

At least 250 ISIS militants also surrendered to the Afghan forces after their main stronghold was overrun by the Taliban militants in Darzab district.

More than six hundred Special Forces of the Afghan intelligence agency have been deployed to Ghazni province, security sources said Monday, like reported by ariananews.af.

According to the sources, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) has taken the lead of the ongoing military operation in the province after three days of fierce fighting between the Taliban insurgents and government forces for control of the provincial capital of Ghazni city.

On Friday morning, Taliban launched their coordinated attack over the provincial capital.

Following that, army commandos were assigned to defend the city, but reports indicate that commandos have inflicted high casualties as well.

Reports also suggest that Taliban militants, Afghan forces, and civilians have experienced heavy casualties during the last three days.

The displaced residents of Ghazni province who arrived in Kabul on Sunday claimed that major parts of the province have been collapsed to Taliban, expect the governor’s office and provincial directorate of security.

However, the army chief of staff, Gen. Sharif Yaftali rejected the claims during a press conference and said that the control of all strategic parts including the civilian and military institutions are under the full control of Afghan forces.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked Ghazni city in central Afghanistan early on Friday, burning police checkpoints, shelling houses and business areas and seizing control of parts of the city before being beaten back, officials said according to reuters.com.

U.S. attack helicopters and drone aircraft provided government forces with air support. But as smoke rose across the city and witnesses reported bodies lying in the streets, and it was unclear how much of Ghazni was under government control.

The attack on a strategic city straddling the main route between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan demonstrated the Taliban’s strength, underscoring how volatile the security situation remains less than three months before parliamentary elections in October.

The defense ministry in Kabul said the attackers had been driven off but were still present in one area of the city and had occupied civilian houses, from where they were still keeping up occasional fire on security forces clearing the area.

It said around 150 attackers had been killed or wounded but gave no estimate of casualties for civilians or security forces.

A statement from U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said fighting had ceased by 8.00 a.m. (0330 GMT) and Afghan forces had held their ground and maintained control of all government centers.

“U.S. forces responded with close-air support (U.S. attack helicopters) and conducted one strike (drone). In addition, U.S. aircraft conducted a show of presence,” Lt Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan said in an emailed statement.

Officials said clashes between security forces and the Taliban started at around 2.00 a.m., forcing the closure of the main highway linking Ghazni to the capital Kabul, 150 kilometers (95 miles) to the northeast.

“The Taliban are dropping missiles near residential and commercial areas. There has not been a single minute of silence for the last eight hours,” said a senior government official in Ghazni early on Friday.

Ghazni police chief General Farid Ahmad Mashal said the Taliban seized several parts of the city, which has been under threat for months with heavy fighting in surrounding districts.

Eight Afghan civilians, including women and children, were killed on August 8 when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the northern Balkh province, an official says according to rferl.org.

Six other civilians were wounded in the explosion, which happened in the Shulgar district, said Sher Jan Durrani, the spokesman for the provincial police chief in Balkh.

Durrani blamed the attack on the Taliban.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the western Herat Province, killing eight police.

Gelani Farhad, the spokesman for the provincial governor, says six insurgents were killed in the ensuing gunbattle. .

Roadside bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices (IED), remain the leading cause of civilian casualties in Afghanistan’s conflict, accounting for 45 percent of cases, the UN said in a report last month.

A string of Taliban attacks in western and eastern Afghanistan have left at least 12 people dead, including four women who died in the crossfire during a shootout between insurgents and the military, Afghan officials said according to foxnews.com.

In western Farah province, the Taliban attacked a military checkpoint, killing four troops and wounding six, according to Mohammad Naser Mehri, the provincial governor’s spokesman.

The attack in Bala Buluk district started late on Monday night and lasted until around dawn on Tuesday. Mehri said the Afghan air force was called in and airstrikes later killed 19 Taliban fighters and wounded 30.

In eastern Logar province, four women were killed and four children were wounded in the crossfire during a shootout between insurgents and the military.

The fighting took place near Puli Alim, the provincial capital, on Monday afternoon, said Hasibullah Stanikzai, a provincial council member. He added that “an investigation is underway to determine which side caused the civilian casualties.”

Also on Monday night, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province, killing four policemen and wounding five, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor. He said the battle in Jaghatu district lasted for three hours.

There was no immediate comment on any of the attacks from the Taliban, who have stepped up their assaults across Afghanistan in recent months.

Separately, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack that killed an Afghan soldier and wounded three troops and a civilian on Sunday in the eastern city of Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar.

Both the Taliban and the local IS affiliate regularly target Afghan security forces. The IS affiliate has also carried out several attacks targeting the country’s Shiite minority. On Sunday, IS claimed a suicide attack two days earlier on a mosque in the city of Gardez, south of Kabul. The attack killed at least 29 people and wounded another 81.

Taliban leaders say they are massing fighters for a “decisive” operation to drive ISIS from its eastern Afghanistan stronghold of Nangarhar, days after a similar offensive routed the latter from the country’s north, like reported by thenational.ae.

Sources from both of the rival militant movements told The National a Taliban attack in the Afghan province was imminent after weeks of heavy clashes elsewhere.

The Taliban are also attempting to unite other militant factions from the patchwork of extremists in eastern Afghanistan, including the Pakistan Taliban, to turn on ISIS.

One Taliban commander who declined to be named, said hundreds of fighters had already been told to travel to the east of the country in advance of the operation to be commanded by local leader Mullah Naik Mohammad. A Taliban so-called “Red Unit” of commandos has also been assigned to the force.

Others in the movement said the assault on Nangarhar would only take place after Taliban fighters had cleared ISIS from nearby Nuristan and Kunar, where clashes have been continuing for weeks.

Any attack on Nangarhar, where ISIS is thought to control nearly half of the province’s districts, is likely to see large numbers of civilians caught up in fighting and forced to flee.

It will also involve Taliban fighters tackling ISIS in an area where it has remained stubbornly potent, despite an aggressive campaign of raids and air strikes by Afghan and US forces.

“Hundreds of Taliban fighters were instructed to move towards Nangarhar to launch a major operation against Daesh strongholds,” the Taliban source said, using ISIS’s Arabic acronym.

“[The Taliban] has also convened an important meeting of various militant groups operating in Afghanistan, including Pakistani Taliban and this time all the militant groups will participate in the conclusive battle of Nangarhar for the complete elimination of Daesh.”

Another source, who also declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to journalists, said: “A lot of work is yet remaining to clear Kunar and Nuristan from Daesh, but it is clear that [the Taliban] will this time eliminate the scourge of ISIS from entire Afghanistan.”

The Taliban and ISIS have fought since militants first declared allegiance to the self-proclaimed caliphate of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in early 2015. The local offshoot of the extremist group has established a firm foothold in Afghanistan even as its heartland in Iraq and Syria has been swept away. Many of its fighters are defectors from other groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban.

“The Taliban and ISIS have been fighting in Nangarhar since 2015,” said Wahid Muzhda, a political analyst and former Taliban official.

“The Taliban never wanted other groups to come into Afghanistan and fight, because they think one group is enough.”

The recent escalation of Taliban attacks on ISIS has raised questions over why the militants have stepped up their campaign. Diplomatic sources said the defeat of ISIS was sought by several of the regional powers accused of providing backing to the Taliban.

Speaking to The National, one European diplomat said: “Everyone’s wants ISIS out of Afghanistan — Nato, the US, Russia, Iran, Pakistan. It’s one of the rare areas where we all align.”

The Taliban has rejected accusations it is co-operating with US efforts against ISIS and has claimed the group was created by the West to undermine it in Afghanistan. Both sides say they have been targeted by US air strikes during their clashes.

More than 150 ISIS fighters, including foreigners allegedly from France, Turkey, Indonesia and Central Asia, last week surrendered in the northern province of Jowzjan as they tried to escape a Taliban onslaught.

The surrender marked the collapse of the only ISIS enclave outside of eastern Afghanistan.