The U.S. military is pulling its forces from an American-led coalition base in Iraq and shifting them to Afghanistan following the defeat of Islamic State group militants in the country, like reported by foxnews.com.

Western contractors at the base say U.S. troops began the drawdown over the past week, with groups of soldiers leaving the base on daily flights. The exact scale of the redeployment was unclear.

According to various estimates, as of 2016, there were more 5,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq, with nearly 4,000 deployed to support and assist local groups fighting ISIS militants. The remaining personnel included special operations forces, logistics workers and troops on temporary rotations, the BBC reported.

Iraqi officials reportedly said their government reached an agreement with the U.S.-led coalition to reduce the number of troops in Iraq.

The reported military buildup in Afghanistan is the latest sign of a growing U.S. focus on Afghanistan as the primary conflict.

The White House reportedly signed off in August on deploying an additional 4,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army is also floating plans to increase the total U.S. force in the country by 1,000 in a bid to boost Afghan forces’ fight against the Taliban, the Washington Post reported.

President Donald Trump introduced a new Afghanistan strategy in August, hinting at relaxing the rules of engagement, acceleration of strikes and other military actions aimed at producing “an honorable and enduring outcome” in Afghanistan.

He warned against premature drawback of troops, referencing to the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw forces from Iraq in 2011.

“A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th.”

Since Trump took office, the number of troops has nearly doubled in Afghanistan – from 8,500 in early 2017 to 14,000 today.

Afghan security forces have killed at least 50 Taliban insurgents during military operations in southern Kandahar province, a senior police official said according to ariananews.af.

Provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Razeq said the operations were conducted last night in Maiwand and Panjwayi districts of Kandahar province at a time when Taliban insurgents were ready to attack Afghan forces.

According to Mr. Razeq, Taliban fighters had prepared 10 vehicles and 35 motorbikes to launch their attack, but during joint operations by Afghan police and intelligence special units 50 militants were killed and 20 others were injured.

He added that some militants were also detained and their weapons had been seized.

The Taliban group has not made a comment about the report yet.

A US airstrike targeted a Taliban meeting in Andar district of southern Ghazni province on Tuesday, officials said, a claim rejected by the militant group, like reported by pajhwok.com.

The governor’s spokesman, Mohammad Arif Noori, told Pajhwok Afghan News the airstrike hit the Taliban meeting in Attal area in the afternoon.

“The Taliban had gathered to plan how to prevent an ongoing Afghan forces operation in this province, but they came under an airstrike,” he said.

He said a large number of Taliban militants had been killed in the attack, but exact figures could not be ascertained so far.

Mohammad Shah, a resident of Andar district, confirmed the airstrike. “Civilians also exist in the area, but it is unclear who are killed in this incident,” he said.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also confirmed the attack in Attal area but he rejected a Taliban meeting had been the target.

“Taliban never organize major meetings in such a sensitive situation,” he said.

A clearing operation against the Taliban is underway in Andar district and some other parts of Ghazni province since a week.

Since the early eighties, Afghanistan has been witnessing the worst crimes against the humanity. The country had been the battleground of the superpowers of the world and now facing extreme forms of violence and, as a result, the country is at the rock bottom of all the developmental indexes in the world. The human life is subjected to worst tortures, killings are common, and terror activities are a daily news in the mountain country, like reported by wionews.com.

The US-backed and Pakistan-trained Mujahedeen groups fought with the Soviet forces and forced them to retreat. As a result, a large number of Afghan refugees moved into the areas across Durand Line and established themselves. Various Islamic sects of Pakistan, including Jamaat-e-Islami, took this opportunity to establish their madrasas or religious schools in these areas.

When Afghanistan was going through a process of destabilisation after the withdrawal of Soviet Troops, Pakistan needed to gain its influence over Afghanistan. For this purpose, it needed a force loyal to it and brutal enough to fight the mighty Northern Alliance of Afghanistan. The Madrasas proved to be an ideal recruiting ground for the Pakistan ISI and a new breed of terror was created -the Taliban.

Over next few years, these seminaries were converted into arms and bomb-making factories and terrorist training centres with the help of Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The only one responsible for these crimes was the Pakistan government which turned these religious seminaries into terror factories. Later, these madrasas provided numerous cadres of Al-Qaeda and more than 1 lakh fighters to the Afghan Taliban. Not only this, they continued to provide terrorists and suicide bombers for the ongoing terror activities in Afghanistan, India and the Middle East.  Many ISIS cadres also came out from some of these madrasas. These madrasas soon became an easy and effective training centre of Pakistan’s ISI.

The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is extremely porous and facilitates easy movement of even a large force across as there is no surveillance. Hence, this was a major advantage for Pakistan ISI to run madrasas in these areas.

These terror factories are not run on mere donations of the public but receive massive funds from the Pakistan government as well as the Middle Eastern countries. A Times of India news report said, in 2016, Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government gave Rs 300 million to one of the prominent madrasa, also known as the ‘University of Jihad’. The madrasa is known to have many Taliban leader among its alumni.

Not only this, it has been alleged that the agents of the Pakistan government often compel and even kidnap Afghan children to study in these madrasas so that they can be taught the most violent form of Islam and turned into a deadly fighter. As per a report published in the Deccan Chronicle (dated 31 Jul 2017), Afghan police caught an organised syndicate which used to traffic young boys to the madrasas across the border in Pakistan from interiors of Afghanistan. They recovered a large number of Afghan boys who were being taken to Pakistan to study in these madrasas against their own will. This proves that Pak support to these madrasas is not only limited to indoctrination but also providing them with manpower, military training, funds and other forms of logistical support.

Today, there are over 15000 madrasas being run on Pak- Afghan border out of which more than 60% are in Baluchistan alone. The reason is obvious, the most important aspect of Taliban or their ideological hub which is called as Quetta Shura is located in the Baluchistan province itself. This is the group which is managing a large number of madrasas in the area. Surprisingly, nearly all of them are teaching either the Deobandi Philosophy of Islam or Salafi ideology, both are extremely violent and most radical forms of Islam.

As of now, nearly all attacks or violence in Afghanistan is traced back to one or the other madrasas in Pakistan. As per the statement made by the Afghan Ambassador in the US, Mr Majeed Qarar, the attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel was also planned in one such madrasa in Pakistan. He quoted the video of the father of one of the suicide attackers who visited the madrasa many times to bring their son back but he was so badly brain-washed that he refused to come back with them.

There have been allegations substantiated by evidences that Pakistan had been providing equipment and weapons to terrorists in Afghanistan. During the recent attack on Maiwand Army Base of Afghanistan, the night vision goggles recovered from terrorists reveal the entire story. They were made by a company in Britain and procured by Pak Army for their military operations. Now, how they reached these terrorists, the question reveals the answer itself.

In March 2016, Pak PM’s advisor Mr Sartaz Ajeez himself accepted that “These madrasas had well-oiled terror infrastructure, beyond imagination, running bomb-making factories, terrorists training centres and those to train suicide bombers – all under multi-storeyed basement under the mosque” which proves the fact that these madrasas are really operating as terror factories.

He further mentioned that “In one mosque that I visited, I remember, in Miranshah, from outside we did not see anything. But under the mosque, there were a 70-room basement, three stories, in which there were four-five IED factories, four-five suicide training centres, communication network, VIP room, conference rooms, amazing infrastructure,”

This is very horrifying, to say the least. The world is surprised to know how these terror factories are still able to run on Pakistani soil smoothly. Pakistan government may deny their association with them but, at last, they are openly operating on their land and making a mockery of their law. Moreover, the victims of these terror factories are only the poor and innocent Afghan population and not Pakistan.

It is the responsibility of the global leaders now to make an all-out effort and ensure that these terror factories are not only closed but their leaders and perpetrators of terror should be brought to justice.

The Afghan security forces have killed a suicide bomber before he manage to carry out a deadly attack using a car bomb in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The provincial government media office in a statement said a suicide bomber riding a Toyota Town Ace vehicle packed with explosives was identified before he carry out an attack in Marjah district.

The statement further added that the suicide bomber detonated his explosives after he was identified, leaving only himself dead.

The incident took place at around 11:30 am local time on Monday in the vicinity of Terikh Nawar area of Marjah district, the statement added.

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

Helmand is among the relatively volatile provinces in southern parts of the country where the Taliban insurgents are active in a number of its districts and often carry out insurgency activities.

In a similar incident, a suicide bomber was killed before he manage to carry out an attack using an armored Humvee type vehicle packed with explosives.

The incident took place in the vicinity of Marjah district amid ongoing operations as the local officials are saying that the Taliban insurgents are attempting to avenge their losses by carrying out suicide attacks.

Unrelenting risks of “terror” and separatist activity in China’s far western region of Xinjiang require a prolonged security crackdown, state media said late on Sunday, after a year-long campaign that saw increased police deployment and heightened surveillance, like reported by reuters.com.

China says Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamic extremists and separatists who plot violent attacks and stir up tensions between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

In response, the government has organized mass police rallies and rolled out new surveillance and anti-terror measures throughout the region, including thousands of newly installed street-corner police stations in cities and towns.

A report first read at a government meeting on Jan. 22 by governor Shohrat Zakir and published on the official Xinjiang Daily newspaper said that 2017’s campaign had made it clear that stabilizing society in Xinjiang would require more measures.

“There has been no fundamental change to the situation of Xinjiang being in a time of regular violent terror activities, an intense struggle against separatists and the painful throes of an intervention treatment,” Zakir said.

He added that the long-term peace and stability of Xinjiang and its society must be the overall goal of the regional government for the “critical period” of the next five years.

To meet this goal, the government will continue to deepen severe specialist operations, such as guaranteeing absolute security of key areas and the “normalization” of preventative measures in society, Zakir said.

China blames the violence in Xinjiang on Islamist extremists and separatists, some of whom it says have links to groups outside the country.

A new specialized U.S. Army unit is preparing to make its first deployment to Afghanistan in the spring as part of the Trump administration’s revamped strategy for the war there, like reported by freebeacon.com.

The 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade, or SFAB, is the first of six new combat units made up of roughly 1,000 soldiers, each of which has been specially designed to “advise and assist” foreign armies so they can contain guerrilla movements independent of other U.S. and coalition forces, Politico reported Friday.

“This is not going to be like previous deployments,” the commander of the brigade, Col. Scott Jackson, told Politico. “The first rule is that everybody in this formation has done their job before.”

Unlike “ad hoc” groups that have been deployed to help train Afghan security forces, the SFABs are being built from the ground up with the sole purpose of assisting foreign troops in the field.

“Our previous experience with [advising]-type work has been ad hoc,” explained Jackson, a career infantry officer who previously served as an adviser in Iraq and later commanded a regular combat brigade.

Army Green Berets, special operations soldiers who specialize in such training missions, have been working to train troops in Afghanistan and Iraq for over 15 years now. But almost from the start, the demand has been too high. As a result, the Army and Marine Corps have supplemented special operations units with conventional fighting units ill-prepared for the advise-and-assist work.

The 1st SFAB’s training timeline has been condensed to facilitate a spring-time deployment after Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, determined the unit to be a good fit for President Donald Trump’s revamped strategy in the region. The strategy focuses on U.S. military advisers training Afghan units, as well as calling in air and artillery strikes, in order to help Afghan infantry battalions regain territory held by the Taliban.

The Trump administration’s strategy includes plans to increase the number of U.S. troops in the country from 11,000 last summer to around 15,000.

Some in the field are skeptical of the new brigades’ potential. They have criticized the shortened training timeline—reduced from one year to 6 months—and questioned if the political will exists to support the Afghan war for as long as it might take for the new strategy to produce lasting results.

Jason Dempsey, a retired Army officer who served as an adviser in Afghanistan, said there are promising signs in the approach to the Afghan war, but he remains cautious of the strategy’s longevity.

“No matter what the president or Gen. Nicholson says, there are going to be midterms and a reelection campaign here. So are we really there for the long term?” asked Dempsey, now affiliated with the Center for a New American Security.

“How do you avoid the pressure to show success that will justify withdrawal?” he added. “It’s going to have to pass the smell test with the American people, because how many times can you be promised that this time’s different?”

Jackson, the brigade commander, acknowledged training for the upcoming deployment “was significantly shortened.” It is a change that critics have not overlooked.

“That’s a strike against it right there,” said David Sedney, a former State Department and senior Pentagon official with long experience in Afghanistan.

Sedney, who supports the effort in theory, added: “Whenever you accelerate something, you reduce the quality.”

Yet others are hopeful, both in the bridages’ role in current Middle East conflicts and in future advise-and-assist missions around the globe.

The brigades were first unveiled in the fall by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who previously participated in some of the improvised adviser efforts in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We are training, advising, and assisting indigenous armies all over the world, and I expect that will increase and not decrease,” Milley said during the fall announcement.

In a speech earlier this month, Milley said the brigades promised “a better-quality product in terms of our advising.”

Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke in December of plans to have U.S. conventional forces, as opposed to special forces, take on a more significant advising role in 2018, the Military Timesreported at the time. He said utilizing U.S. forces to advise the conventional Afghan army, rather than focusing solely on the Afghan special forces, will increase the capabilities of its troops, who so far have not been fighting “in the way we want them to.”

“We’re going to be putting more American forces, advisers, in the more conventional force in the Afghan army. As you know, they have not had them, and they’ve not—they were not ready to fight in the way we want them to,” Mattis said. “So, as you put the Americans down there, you’ll see more out with the Afghan force—the regular forces, the ones that have not had mentors before.”

“Our point is to make their [Afghan] general purpose force more capable,” Mattis said.

While the brigades’ ultimate effectiveness remains to be seen, morale is high among the 1st SFAB’s soldiers, who are “eager, battle-hardened volunteers,” Politico noted.

Some soldiers volunteered for the brigade because they felt invested in the war in Afghanistan or felt affection for the Afghan people.

Staff Sgt. James Elliott, who has fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said advising is simply the latest form the war has taken. For him, it is the fight that is motivating.

“I like to fight. I grew up fighting,” he said.

Staff Sgt. Robert Sumner joined the brigade after first serving in the British Army, working as a security contractor in Iraq, and then joining the U.S. Army and deploying to Afghanistan. He said he was skeptical of the unit at first, but after a few months with the brigade, he is confident the Army is putting the right resources into the mission.

“I haven’t done this much training in a long time,” Sumner said. “I’m looking forward to the deployment.”

Indonesia and five other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Thursday launched an intelligence sharing initiative to fight terrorism and radicalism in the region, like reported by nikkei.com.

Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu and deputy defense ministers and senior officials from the five other countries signed a joint agreement on the cooperation following two joint working group meetings held in Jakarta and Bali.

“This concept is purely cooperation to deal with threats from terrorism and radicalism in the region without any political agenda in it,” Ryamizard said in a speech.

Although it only involves six of ASEAN’s 10 member states now, he said hopefully in the future the membership could be expanded.

Initiated by Indonesia, Ryamizard also said “Our Eyes” is needed for surveillance and detection of potential threats posed by Islamic State in Southeast Asia.

He said that within the Southeast Asia region, the southern Philippines and Sulu Sea areas have become IS strongholds.

Other than IS, Ryamizard also warned of possible threats emerging from the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

If not properly dealt with, he said Rohingya refugees “could be recruited by IS to strengthen their network.”

The remaining four ASEAN member states are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

As India prepares to receive 10 ASEAN leaders for the Republic Day celebrations, an intelligence alert that the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is on the radar of the Islamic State is giving security agencies sleepless nights, like reported by theprint.in.

According to sources, Duterte’s agenda to militarily wipe out Islamist extremism from the state of Mindanao—along with killing Isnilon Hapilon, leader of Abu Sayyaf and emir of the IS in Southeast Asia in the city of Marawi—has provoked the group to mobilise sleeper cells based in Indonesia, which are now planning a strike.

“Duterte is coming with baggage, as he has been very vocal about wiping out IS. The Indonesian President too will be present, and could also be a target. We have intelligence inputs that the IS has mobilised its people and is planning to strike,” a security agency source told ThePrint.

The problem

Generally there is just one visiting dignitary at the Republic Day parade, but this time, with 10 of them expected, Rajpath is more vulnerable than usual to sabotage.

“The space for the enclosures remains the same, while the turnout of dignitaries and people is higher. Therefore, the chances of infiltration are higher,” an official of a security agency who wished to remain anonymous said.

“Since the inputs from intelligence agencies are very specific, we are exercising extra caution and have made a separate unit to check the antecedents of persons, including government officials on duty, entering the enclosures.”

Duterte’s history with the IS

Abu Sayyaf is a faction that aims to create an Islamic Caliphate in the Philippines, and is allegedly involved in several kidnappings and beheading hostages, including foreigners.

The Philippines has been facing an insurgency problem since the late 1970s, with the state of Mindanao, inhabited by minority Muslims, demanding autonomy.

The demand for a Muslim Mindanao was followed by many armed rebellions, and was being spearheaded by Hapilon, who had pledged loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after he declared a caliphate in Mosul, Iraq, in 2014. Duterte’s military eliminated Hapilon and sanitised his followers.

Moreover, martial law was extended in Mindanao for one more year, until the end of 2018.

Duterte, who vocally condemns the IS, has also vowed that he will never allow IS to make the Philippines its base in Southeast Asia, and that he will not let the ones who subscribe to the Daesh or IS ideology succeed in making the Philippines their regional centre. He has said that through martial law, he aims to eradicate terror groups and communist rebel groups in Mindanao.

New Chinese IEDs

Intelligence agencies have inputs that the terror groups, especially the Jaish-e-Mohammad, might use a new-age improvised explosive device (IED), which has been made in China.

“This circuit is very difficult to detect by standard explosive detectors. It’s reported that China has exported a bulk of these circuits to Pakistan, ostensibly for road construction in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor,” a source said.

“Since heads of state from 10 countries will be present at one place, terror groups will see this as a chance to strike and send out a message. Hence the threat perception is high”.

Isis has claimed a deadly attack on an office used by charity Save the Children in Afghanistan.

At least two people were killed and 12 injured after suicide bombs were detonated and gunmen stormed the building in Jalalabad on Wednesday.

The claim of responsibility was made via the extremists’ media channel Amaq.

The attack began at 09.10am local time at the government building in eastern Nangarhar province with a suicide bomb, quickly followed by at least three gunmen who entered the compound.

Residents fled the area as Afghan Special Forces arrived on the scene.

“There was a blast and the target was Save the Children,” local government spokesperson Attaullah Khogyani said in a statement.

“Attackers entered the compound and the fight is going on.”

Around 50 people are believed to work in the government building for the British charity and a Swedish institution. It was not immediately clear how many people remain inside.

Picture from the scene showed a huge plume of black smoke rising into the air, burnt out vehicles and dozens of soldiers on the perimeter of the compound.

“An explosion rocked the area and right after that children and people started running away,” eyewitness Ghulam Nabi told Reuters. “I saw a vehicle catch fire and then a gunfight started.”

The violence follows a Taliban siege over the weekend of Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel in which 22 people were killed.

Afghanistan has been engulfed by a rising wave of violence across the country since international troops withdrew in 2014.

Since then, the Taliban has managed to seize control of around 40 per cent of the country – although it hold no cities – and other militant organisations such as Isis have gained a firm foothold.

The security forces, civilians and foreigners, including aid workers, are frequently targeted in extremist attacks.

“We are devastated at the news that our Save the Children office in Jalalabad city, Afghanistan, came under attack this morning,” a Save the Children spokesperson in London said in a statement.

“Our primary concern is for the safety and security of our staff. We are awaiting further information from our team and cannot comment further at this time.”