At least seven Pakistani militants were killed and eight others were wounded during the operations in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East said the militants were killed or wounded in Nari district.

The source further added that the Afghan national army, Afghan national police, and the National Directorate of Security operatives conducted joint operations in Do Kalam area of the district.

According to Silab, the operations were launched on Thursday and are still being conducted to suppress the militants.

The armed forces also receiving air and artillery support during the operations, the 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military added.

The security situation in eastern Kunar province has started to deteriorate sharply during the recent months amid growing insurgency activities by the Taliban and ISIS militants.

The anti-government armed militants continuously attempt to expand their foothold in this province amid ongoing military operations and airstrikes.

The US forces based in Afghanistan also conduct airstrike against the ISIS and militants affiliated with the other groups in a bid to suppress the militants from expanding foothold in this province.

The Philippine military said it has arrested a Muslim cleric who knew in advance about a bomb that killed 11 people on Basilan Island in an attack earlier this week that raised fears of Islamic State involvement, like reported by irrawaddy.com.

Acting on a tipoff, scout rangers raided the home of Indalin Jainul, alias Ustadz Abdulgani, 12 hours after Tuesday’s bombing in Lamitan town.

Informants told the army that the cleric, 58, knew the bomb would go off and had been helping foreign operatives reach Basilan from Malaysia, according to army spokesman Gerry Besana. A grenade was found at his home.

Jainul is being charged with multiple murder and illegal possession of explosives. His family protested what they said were trumped-up charges.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed five militia members, a soldier, and four civilians, including a child, calling it a “martyrdom operation.” The driver of a van carrying the device also died. He was believed to have detonated the device when questioned at the checkpoint.

Defense and military officials dismissed the Islamic State claim as propaganda, with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana describing the claim as “just speculation.” Basilan is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a group known for its banditry and kidnapping, though it has pledged loyalty to Islamic State.

The attack came days after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made peace overtures towards the Abu Sayyaf, following his approval for an autonomy plan sought for decades by leaders of the region’s Muslim minority.

Vehicle bombings are rare in the Philippines, despite decades of separatist and Islamist violence that have destabilized the southern Mindanao region.

Security experts say that although Islamic State has no known affiliate in the southern Philippines, it has ties with local extremists who have given refuge to foreign radicals, particularly from Malaysia and Indonesia.

The scope of Islamic State’s influence became clearer last year when an alliance of black-clad fighters occupied Marawi City for five months, taking hostages, destroying churches and flying black flags in scenes reminiscent of Iraq and Syria. More than 1,100 people were killed.

The US forces based in Afghanistan carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS and Taliban positions in eastern Kunar and Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military said the airstrikes left at least seven militants dead.

A statement by Silab Corps said the US unmanned aerial vehicles pounded the ISIS hideouts in Milwa and Gorgori areas of Deh Bala in Nangarhar province.

The statement further added that the airstrikes left at least six ISIS militants and their hideouts were totally destroyed.

Silab Corps said the US unmanned aerial vehicles also targeted the Taliban targets in Watapur district of Kunar and as a result a Taliban group member identified as Masiullah was killed.

The Silab Corps in its also added that the airstrikes did not inflict casualties on the local residents of the two provinces.

This comes as counter-terrorism operations are underway against ISIS and other militants in eastern Kunar, Nangarhar, and other restive provinces in the East.

A senior leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) Mawlavi Habib Ur Rehman surrendered to the Afghan forces together with his 152 miliants, like reported by khaama.com.

The 209^th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North said the ISIS leader and his fighters have surrendered in Jawzjan province.

A statement by Shaheen Corps said the militants surrendered to Afghan forces late on Tuesday night.

The statement further added that Mawlavi Rehman and his militants also handed over their weapons and some other military kits t the Afghan forces.

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

Jawzjan has been among the relatively calm provinces in North of Afghanistan but the security situation of the province has deteriorated during the recent years.

Both the Taliban and ISIS loyalists operate in some districts of the province and often carry out terrorist related activities.

This comes as sporadic clashes are underway between the Taliban and ISIS militants in some parts of Jawzjan province.

An Indonesian court on Tuesday (July 31) banned the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), the country’s most active militant group responsible for various recent terror attacks, along with groups linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), like reported by straitstimes.com.

JAD was charged last Tuesday with being an organisation responsible for widespread terrorism, the loss of lives and the destruction of property.

The verdict would allow the authorities to arrest and prosecute any member linked to the group, including sleeper cells, which is behind several terror attacks, including a gun and suicide-bomb attack in Jakarta in 2016 that left four bystanders dead.

The group has also pledged allegiance to ISIS.

“There is convincing evidence… of terror attacks that were carried out by members of JAD in various places in Indonesia,” presiding judge Aris Buwono Langgeng told a courtroom in Jakarta as former JAD leader Zainal Anshori sat in the defendant’s seat.

JAD was formed in October 2014, four months after ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the territories it controlled in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group (IS) has said it was responsible for an attack in Tajikistan on Sunday, in which four foreign tourists were killed, like reported by bbc.co.uk.

Two Americans, a Swiss and a Dutch national died when a car hit them in the Danghara district, about 70km (43 miles) south-east of the capital Dushanbe.

Three other tourists were also injured.

This is the first time IS has claimed an attack in Tajikistan, but the group has not provided proof of its claim.

Two people suspected of involvement were later killed by authorities in a special operation. Another four were arrested in the same operation and a damaged car believed to have been involved was recovered.

A further three suspects were “rendered harmless” after being traced to a village, officials said. It is unclear exactly what this means, however, Prague-based privately-owned Tajik news website Akhbor suggested they had been killed.

IS later said it had carried out the attack on “citizens of the crusader coalition”.

The Islamic State group (IS) isn’t known to have a presence in Tajikistan. However, the group has had members from the country, and from other Central Asian states. Tajik authorities have in the past arrested alleged IS recruiters or sympathisers.

In May 2015, a former member of Tajikistan’s special OMON police unit, Gulmurod Khalimov, pledged allegiance to IS and migrated to territory held by the group. This was flaunted in an IS-linked video in an effort to inspire others in Tajikistan to follow his example.

In February 2018, IS said its attacks in Russia and former Soviet countries had entered a new phase, inciting sympathisers to attack Christians in “the Caucasus, Crimea, and Central Asia countries”.

“The current stage”, said IS via its weekly newspaper al-Naba, “does not require groups with big numbers of trained fighters, nor heavy weapons. Rather, it requires a mujahid to use whatever weapon he can get his hands on” to attack.

Such attacks, it said, would instil fear in Christians and prompt them to leave these countries.

An amateur video which appears to be of the same incident captures the moment a car is driven into unsuspecting cyclists.

According to the minister, three of the tourists died instantly and one on the way to a nearby hospital.

“One had knife wounds, he received medical help, now his condition is stable,” Mr Rahimzoda told reporters.

The victims were on a tour in the Central Asian country with three other tourists from France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Tajikistan has struggled with poverty and instability since the former Soviet republic became independent in 1991. It had declared 2018 a “year of tourism”, AFP news agency said.

At least eight Taliban militants were killed or wounded after blown by an improvised explosive device planted by own comrades in northern Kunduz province, like reported by khaama.com.

The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan military in the North said the incident has taken place in Dasht Archi district.

The source further added that an improvised explosive device planted in Puli Moman village went off, leaving 5 militants dead and three others severely wounded.

Taliban and other militants often use IED as the weapon of their choice to target the security forces and government but in majority of such attacks ordinary civilians are targeted, besides such attacks often claims the lives of the militants as well.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in its latest report stated that 1,692 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2018.

According to UNAMA, the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in attacks by Anti-Government Elements remained the leading cause of civilian casualties.

“The combined use of suicide and non-suicide IEDs caused nearly half of all civilian casualties. Continuing trends first documented last year by UNAMA, the majority of IED casualties were caused by suicide and complex attacks, which again were responsible for record high civilian casualties, resulting in 1,413 civilian casualties (427 deaths and 986 injured), a 22 per cent increase,” UNAMA said.

Militants raided a government building in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 11, officials said, setting off explosions in an ongoing attack, like reported by thedefensepost.com.

At least five people have been wounded in the attack in Jalalabad, Nangarhar provincial governor spokesperson Attaullah Khogyani told AFP, in the second assault in the city in as many days.

Security forces were battling to clear the militants from the compound, Khogyani said, but it was not clear how many gunmen were inside.

“I can confirm an armed attack on a branch of the education department,” Khogyani said.

“Two big explosions have been reported from the site so far.”

Jalalabad health director Najibullah Kamawal confirmed five wounded had been brought to hospital so far.

On Tuesday, a suicide attack in the same city killed at least 12 people and ignited a nearby petrol station, with witnesses describing screaming victims “swallowed” by flames.

The bomber was targeting Afghan security forces when he blew himself up. Ten civilians were among the dead.

Islamic State claimed that attack via its Amaq agency – the latest carried out by the extremists in restive Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan.

Islamic State – Khorasan Province has claimed a series of high-casualty suicide bomb attacks in the province in recent weeks, as U.S. and Afghan forces continue offensive operations against the group.

While the Taliban is Afghanistan’s largest militant group, ISIS has a relatively small but potent presence, mainly in the north and east of the country.

Wednesday’s attack comes a day after President Ashraf Ghani flew to Brussels to attend a NATO summit where he will be hoping to get a greater commitment from members to the nearly 17-year conflict.

It also coincides with the start of a university entrance exam for more than 16,000 students in the city, but it was not clear if the two events were linked.

The attack comes exactly a month after militants raided the education department in Jalalabad.

In that incident a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the department, triggering a fierce battle between gunmen and security forces.

At least 10 people were wounded after terrified employees jumped out of the windows.

A recent ceasefire between Afghan security forces and the Taliban during the Islamic holiday Eid had raised hopes that an end to hostilities in the war-weary country was possible.

Since then, however, the Taliban has returned to the battlefield and ISIS, which was not involved in the truce, has continued to carry out deadly attacks.

ISIS’s capital in Afghanistan has been captured after a joint US-Afghan assault that left nearly 170 terrorists dead, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

The operation in Deh Bala, on the border with Pakistan, began at the end of April and was largely complete in early June.

About 600 American Green Berets and three Afghan commando companies were involved, according to Military.com, with no casualties for the allies.

‘This was one of the main green zones that did two things. One, it provided money, finance, logistics to ISIS and we’ve taken that away from them,’ Lt. Col. Josh Thiel, from the U.S. First Special Forces Group, said.

‘Additionally, ISIS was using this as a site to prepare and move high-profile attacks on Kabul and Jalalabad.’

Officials said soldiers found booby traps and the bodies of two beheaded women as they cleared the area of terrorists.

The operation, involving three companies of Afghan commandos supported by U.S. air strikes and American Special Forces teams, began with troops arriving by helicopter and setting up an operations base near the village of Gargari, where the ISIS fighters were trying to establish a local capital.

Several days of heavy fighting ended in early June with 167 Islamic State fighters killed and large quantities of equipment captured.

The fight against ISIS and other militant groups including Al Qaeda is at the heart of the U.S. counterterrorism mission being conducted alongside the NATO-led Resolute Support operation that trains and advises Afghan security forces.

Intended to prevent Afghanistan being used as a base for future attacks against the United States, it is in large part fought against irregular forces in remote valleys on the far eastern edge of the country, an area crisscrossed by smuggling routes into the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Militants loyal to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the movement’s local affiliate, first started appearing in Nangarhar around four years ago.

Since then, the movement has gained a reputation for brutality extreme even by the standards of the Afghan conflict, making a trademark of executions by beheading or explosion.

The fighters in Deh Bala, next to Achin district where the U.S. military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb last year, were funding themselves by illegal logging and talc mining, as well as exploiting local villagers.

However, a clear link between fighters in places like Gargari, a mudbrick village down the road from Deh Bala’s district capital, and the militants behind a series of sophisticated suicide attacks in Kabul or Jalalabad is elusive.

‘The network is very fungible…,’ said Brigadier General John Brennan, Resolute Support commander in eastern Afghanistan.

‘I wouldn’t say the actual suicide bombers came from Deh Bala, but facilitation runs all along the border and part of it used to come through here.’