Officers have been killed in a riot at a police detention centre on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, like reported by sbs.com.au

Islamic militants are claiming to have killed up to 10 police officers during a riot at a detention centre in a city near Indonesia’s capital which houses terror suspects.

The riot happened in Depok, on Jakarta’s southern outskirts, where four days earlier police arrested three Islamic militants they say planned to attack the headquarters and other police stations in the same town.

The Islamic State group’s Amaq News Agency published a report saying the fighting that broke out at the prison late on Tuesday was between its fighters and the counterterrorism squad.

A counterterrorism investigator said in a text message that six officers had been taken hostage by the inmates, and five of them were killed. One other officer was still being held captive. The death toll has not been confirmed.

Images purportedly depicting the riot showing armed men in Islamic State clothing with an IS flag have been circulating on social media. IS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Four police officers were injured and were being treated at a hospital, said an investigator, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to reporters.

Earlier in the day, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told reporters outside the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police in Depok that some people from both sides were injured, but didn’t give a number.

Unconfirmed reports said the riot began when some terrorist detainees tried to grab weapons from guards on the counterterrorism squad.

“It was just triggered by a trivial thing, about food from families,” Iqbal said.

The inmates reportedly pushed an iron trellis until it broke before taking long-barreled weapons and breaking through the ammunition room inside the detention building. That led to a shoot-out between the inmates and counterterrorism officers.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by Jemaah Islamiah network that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The network was neutralised following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders.

But new threats have emerged recently from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local “infidels” instead of Westerners.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters will start operations in support of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces as at least 60 Afghan Air Force personnel have fully completed their training for the historic operations debut, like reported by khaama.com.

“A historic day for the Afghan Air Force today, Afghanistan’s first UH-60 Black Hawk mission-qualified crews graduated. Tomorrow, they begin operations in support of Afghanistan’s national security and defense,” according to a short statement posted online by the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.

“The introduction of the UH-60 marks the dawning of a new age for the Afghan Air Force,” said United States Air Force Brig. Gen. Phillip Stewart, Train, Advise and Assist Command-Air commander.

According to the Resolute Support Mission, Gen. Stewart was joined after graduation by Maj. Gen. Abdul Raziq Sherzai, Kandahar Air Wing commander, and Maj. Gen. Mohammad Shoaib, Afghan Air Force commander.

The UH-60 is a capable, versatile, combat proven aircraft that will enhance the war fighting capabilities of the Afghan Air Force.

This comes as efforts are underway to boost the capabilities of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), specifically the Afghan Air Force.

The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan would continue till the time the Taliban are driven to a political settlement, the defense secretary said, like reported by pajhwok.com.

Jim Mattis, speaking to reporters, claimed President Donald Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan was working as the Taliban had not been able to take control of more districts.

He denied reports the Pentagon had been consistently saying the situation was turning around in Afghanistan. “I don’t know that’s been the message from this building, I would not subscribe to that.”

Last August, he recalled, the US had announced that NATO would be going to hold the line. “We knew there would be tough fighting going forward.”

The murder of journalists and other innocent people was a great testimony to what the US stood for, and more importantly, what it stood against, the secretary remarked.

The Afghan military was being made more capable, he said, adding many of the personnel were special forces, advised, assisted and accompanied by NATO mentors.

“So the expansion there is why the enemy has been unable to take any district centres, provincial centres or make any advances there,” Mattis said in response to a question.

The US would stand by the Afghan people and government and the NATO mission would continue as the Taliban were being driven to a political settlement, Mattis continued.

A day earlier he said the Taliban and affiliated groups were conducting major attacks inside Kabul to grab international media attention. “We anticipated that they would do their best to try to bring bombs right into Kabul. They want them reported.”

A number of such attacks had been stopped, he asserted, regretting the terrorist groups were targeting voter registration centres. The Taliban realised the danger of the people being allowed to vote, he said.

The US Army’s 101st Airborne Sustainment Brigade would deploy to Afghanistan in the summer, the military announced, like reported by pajhwok.com.

In line its security policy, the Pentagon declined providing the numbers of soldiers expected to deploy. The Defense Department started withholding the numbers last year.

Largely comprised of mounted infantrymen operating from armoured Stryker vehicles, the regiment most recently deployed in 2016 to Afghanistan, where it helped train Afghan forces fighting against the Taliban.

The Special Troops battalion of the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade will replace the 3rd Infantry Division’s Sustainment Brigade in Afghanistan.

It will conduct logistics operations, including the delivery of food, water, fuel and ammunition to American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. It is the unit’s fifth deployment to Afghanistan.

At least 11 Taliban insurgents, including three key members, were killed in ongoing security forces operations in north-eastern Kapisa province in the past week, local security officials confirmed to tolonews.com.

In addition, 16 other insurgents were wounded.

The operations were launched in Nijrab district of the province to clear the area of insurgents, provincial police chief Mohammad Razaq Yaqobi said. He said the three key Taliban members killed were  Mullah Fedaye, Obaida and Islamyar were killed.

“Three security force members were killed, and 10 others were wounded during the operation,” Yaqobi said.

He did not provide further details about the operation.

The Taliban has not yet commented.

Islamic State militants on Tuesday beheaded a 12-year-old boy for supplying food to police in northern Jawzjan province, officials said according to pajhwok.com.

Deputy police chief Col. Abdul Hafiz Khashi told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident took place in the Kotal-i-Austi village of Darzab district. The child’s brother-in-law was serving in the police force.

The militants accused the child of supplying food and non-food items to the police personnel. He was killed in line with a kangaroo court verdict.

Khashi remarked: “This is the worst crime committed in the province by Daesh militants, who have been hit hard recently by security forces.”

Meanwhile, Maghfirat Samimi, provincial head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, hit out at the IS for the grisly crime.

Maulvi Hamidullah, a cleric in Shiberghan, said the killing of humans, especially children, had no justification. “The killing of an innocent person means the killing of humanity.”

The boy, identified as Rahim, had been in Daesh captivity for a month before he was killed.

Three members of the Iranian security forces were killed overnight in clashes along the country’s border with Pakistan, state news agency IRNA reported.

It said that three members of a “terrorist group from Pakistan” were also killed in the clash.

The unrest erupted when the group attacked a police post in the border area of Mirjaveh, around 75 kilometers southeast of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, IRNA said.

Three of the attackers were killed along with a police officer and two members of the Revolutionary Guards, it added.

The Guards confirmed that a police officer was killed in an ambush in Mirjaveh and two soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Iran has criticized Pakistan in the past for supporting the Jaish al-Adl extremist group, which it accuses of ties to Al-Qaeda and carrying out numerous attacks in Sistan-Baluchistan.

The province in southeastern Iran has long been plagued by unrest from both drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants.

In April 2017, ten Iranian border guards were killed by militants in Mirjaveh.

Extremist groups, which have carried out several deadly attacks in recent years, say they are fighting against discrimination.

The Afghan and US Special Forces have intensified operations against the ISIS-K in northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan as latest report indicate the group has lost at least 90 members during the operations since the beginning of the year, like reported by khaama.com.

According to a report by NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, Afghan Special Security Forces eliminated 22 IS-K fighters attempting to defend IS-K’s strategic center of Darzab district, Jowzjan province on Apr. 11. The operation occurred six days after Qari Hekmatullah, the IS-K emir for northern Afghanistan, and his bodyguard were killed by a U.S. airstrike in Darzab on Apr. 5.

The report further adds that fighters that choose to stay with IS-K face a similar fate as its leaders. Afghan and U.S. special operations coupled with U.S. airstrikes continue to decimate the heart of IS-K in Darzab. Afghan and U.S. forces have killed 90 IS-K fighters this year, a majority were eliminated in Darzab.

“The recent Afghan and U.S. special operations raid will lead to the tactical defeat of IS-K in northern Afghanistan,” stated Gen. John Nicholson, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan commander. “Pockets of former Taliban fighters may claim allegiance to IS-K, but they are isolated and losing. We have them on the defensive. They will not win.”

According to the NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, a series of Afghan Special Security Forces (ASSF) and U.S. SOF counterterrorism operations focused on dismantling the terrorists’ leadership leaves IS-K without direction. IS-K in Jowjzan now selects its leaders from a dwindling, revolving door of insurgents with a history of divided loyalties.

The report also states that like Hekmatullah, IS-K’s new leader in northern Afghanistan is Mawlavi Habibul Rahman, a native Uzbek. Also like Hekmatullah, Rahman has had intermittent ties to both the Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Malaysia police are tracking down four Islamic State (IS)-linked terrorists involved in a plot to kidnap and murder police officers, as well as attack non-Muslim places of worship, like reported by channelnewsasia.com.

Authorities said in a press release on Monday (Apr 16) that six other members of the IS cell were arrested by the Johor counter-terrorism unit between Feb 27 and Mar 1, but that four were still on the run and “dangerous”.

Two of the suspects were identified as Muhamad Faizal Muhamad Hanafi and Muhamad Hanafi Yah, both of whom are Malaysians from Kelantan.

A third Malaysian is Nor Farkhan Mohd Isa, whose address was indicated as Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai in Johor.

The fourth suspect, a 37-year-old Thai, is Awae Wae-eya.

Police said anyone with information about the suspects should contact the authorities. They can also go directly to police headquarters in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur or any police station closest to them.

Anyone found to have hidden information about, helped or protected the suspects may be jailed seven to 30 years, said Malaysian police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun.

The Taliban claimed a deadly attack on a government compound in central Afghanistan the night before that killed at least 15 security personnel and three district officials, AP reported according to scroll.in.

The attackers stormed a secure compound in the Khuja Omari district on Wednesday night, after which security forces fought back, deputy chief police in the Ghazni province, Ramazan Ali Moseni, said. Moseni said at least 25 of the Taliban attackers were killed in the encounter.

Afghan Parliament member Mohammad Arif Rahmani said the three officials killed in the attack were Khwaja Omari District Governor Ali Shams Dost, the intelligence service director and a deputy police official. The attackers reportedly planted mines to stop security forces and back-up from helping the government forces.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told the agency that the attackers had taken control of all security posts in the district – a claim the Afghanistan government is yet to confirm or respond to.