The militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have beheaded a man, allegedly over sorcery in northern Sar-e-Pul province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

According to the local officials, the incident took place late on Tuesday night in the vicinity of the provincial capital.

Sar-e-Pul governor’s spokesman Zabiullah Amani confirmed the incident and said the victim has been identified as Mullah Taj Mohammad who was beheaded in Ganda area of the central city of Sar-e-Pul.

He said the man was beheaded by a local ISIS commander identified as Qari Sher Mohammad.

The main reason behind the execution of the man has not been ascertained so far but the beheading was apparently carried out for offering talisman to the people.

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

Sar-e-Pul is among the relatively calm provinces in northern Afghanistan but the anti-government armed militant groups are active in some of its districts and often conduct insurgency activities.

This is not the first time the ISIS loyalists have executed the civilians but numerous incidents have taken place in various other districts.

At least three civilians were beheaded by the militants of the terror group in northern Jawzjan province nearly four months ago.

Indonesian maids working in Hong Kong are being radicalised by extremists from the Islamic State group, a security think-tank said in a report Wednesday, according to businessinsider.com .

Around 150,000 of the city’s army of domestic helpers are from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

Against a backdrop of growing religious conservatism at home, a small number of militant maids has emerged, according to a report from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).

But rights activists and the Indonesian Muslim community in Hong Kong said they were unaware of radicals and fear that reported links with IS would breed unfair suspicion.

The IPAC investigation described a “radical fringe” of around 45 Indonesian domestic helpers, who may have been attracted to militant circles by “the search for a sense of community in an unfamiliar environment.”

“Some of these women were drawn by jihadi boyfriends they met online,” says IPAC analyst Nava Nuraniyah. “But some joined ISIS as a path to empowerment.”

A string of abuse cases has highlighted the exploitation of maids in Hong Kong by unscrupulous employment agencies which confiscate their passports, claim their wages and keep them in the dark about their rights.

But the IPAC report said ill-treatment did not seem to have played a direct role in radicalisation, although it had led to the establishment of an Islamic advocacy group to act as a kind of union.

The war in Syria has fuelled interest in militant groups as jihadi social media stoked sympathy for Sunni victims, the report said.

It told the story of one woman who turned to radicalism after years of turmoil in her personal life and became a key player in helping Indonesian jihadis get to Syria, sometimes via Hong Kong.

A handful of maids ended up going to Syria themselves, said IPAC, a leading think-tank which has published numerous reports on conflicts in Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong media has previously reported about IS supporters leafleting Indonesian domestic helpers as they gathered in public spaces across the city on Sundays, their day off.

One heavily pregnant maid who went missing in 2015 was said to have told friends she was planning to link up with Islamic State militants in Syria alongside her husband, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Indonesian community in Hong Kong has tripled in the past 17 years due to the demand for domestic helpers, and religious teaching and prayer groups have grown alongside it.

But Indonesian migrant rights activist and former domestic helper Eni Lestari said while the threat of extremism was always a possibility, she was unaware of IS supporters among them.

“We are Muslim by religion and we organise a lot of Muslim activities… we don’t do radicalisation,” Lestari told AFP.

“I think it’s really unfair for the Indonesian domestic worker community to be labelled.”

Prayer groups and visits from clerics have become more common in Hong Kong due to rising “Islamisation” in Indonesia, which has also seen more women wearing veils, Lestari said.

But helpers were now fearful about organising religious events as police regularly question them, she added.

Domestic helper Romlah Rosyidah, chairwoman of the Indonesian Migrant Muslim Alliance in Hong Kong, said she worried about the impact reported IS links would have.

Her employer had recently asked her if she knew about the radical group, she told AFP.

Police also came to watch activities held by members of her group, which includes teaching how to pray and read the Koran, she said.

“Islam is not extreme,” she added, saying she did not know any IS supporters.

Indonesia has long struggled with Islamic militancy and hundreds of radicals from the Southeast Asian state have flocked to fight with IS.

As many as 30 Afghan soldiers have been killed in an overnight attack in southern Kandahar province, a security source told 1TV Wednesday.

The attack happened on their base in Khakrez district around 1:30 a.m.

Forty more soldiers went missing following the attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack and exaggerated over casualty toll.

The tragedy comes amid stepped up insurgency from the Taliban. The militants took three districts different zones of the country, including Kohistan, Taywara and Janikheil.

The Interior Ministry announced Sunday that Kohistan was reclaimed by the Afghan forces.

At least 26 persons, including nine Policemen, were killed and 56 others injured in a suicide blast near the Arfa Karim IT Tower on the Ferozepur Road of Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, reports The News.

The suicide attack was carried out during the demolition of the old fruit and vegetable market. The suicide bomber was aged between 16 to 18 years, apparently riding a bike, reached the spot where the Police were standing guard to avert any retaliation from the owners of the buildings being demolished for a park.

The bomber – carrying a suicide jacket weighing at least 12 kilogrammes of explosives, including ball bearings – triggered the button at 3:55pm. The impact of the blast was so huge that it shook the Arfa Karim Tower like an earthquake as ball bearings shattered a number of windowpanes.

Three bikes and a car were damaged in the blast. The incident occurred just a few meters away from 180-H Model Town – the Chief Minister’s camp office, exposing the so-called combing search operations and maintenance of law and order in the provincial metropolis.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

A probe into the deadly operations against the ISIS terrorists in eastern Nangarhar province has confirmed the civilian casualties besides scores of ISIS insurgents were killed or wounded, like reported by khaama.com.

The probe team was found after reports emerged that several civilians sustained casualties in the raid conducted in Haska Mina district.

According to the findings of the probe team, the ISIS militants had taken shelter inside a house where a funeral ceremony was held, taking scores of civilians as hostages and using them as human shields.

The members of the probe team said the ISIS insurgents immediately launched an attack on the security personnel after hostage takings, prompting the security personnel to respond to the fire with the support of airpower.

At least 25 ISIS militants were killed and 15 others were wounded in the operation that lasted for several hours.

The provincial government in a statement said the probe team included high level government officials including officials from the 4^th brigade of the army, police commandment, intelligence directorate and other related government institutions.

In the meantime, the local residents reaffirmed their support to the security personnel and institutions in their fight against the militants of the terror group in this province, the probe team members said.

At least 28 Taliban insurgents were killed in an Afghan security forces airstrike in Kohistan district of northern Faryab province on Monday afternoon, local officials confirmed Tuesday according tolonews.com

In addition, six other insurgents were wounded.

The airstrike was launched a day after Taliban insurgents took control of the district from security forces.

“Seven Taliban local commanders are also among the dead,” a spokesman for Shaheen 209 Military Corps Nasratullah Jamshidi said.

“Soon we will launch a military operation to re-capture the district,” Jamshidi said.

However, he did not provide further details.

On Monday, local officials said that at least 60 security force members were under siege by the Taliban in the district.

Kohistan district fell to the Taliban early Sunday after heavy clashes between security forces and insurgents.

“Thirty army special forces, 20 soldiers and 10 national policemen have been surrounded by the insurgents in Khair Abad village which is 1.5 kilometers far from center of the district since yesterday,” a spokesman for the provincial governor, Abdul Karim Youresh said Monday.

“The clashes still continue in the area and the Taliban have told the tribal elders that if the security forces do not surrender to them, they will kill them all,” Youresh said.

He said that 130 residents who were helping security forces in their battle to hold off the Taliban had surrendered to the insurgents. However, their commander managed to escape and fled to Ghor after the district’s collapse.

The data, analysed by US state department for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism, reveals India is third after Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of terror attacks, The Times of India reports on July 23. Out of 11,072 terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, India bore the brunt of 927, 16 per cent more than 2015 (798). The number of deaths in India also rose 17 per cent from 289 in 2015 to 337 last year while the number of injured increased from 500 in 2015 to 636 last year, like reported by satp.org.

US analysis has labeled Naxals the third most deadly terror organisation in the world after IS and Taliban, even ahead of Boko Haram. The CPI (Maoist) was behind 336 terror attacks last year in which 174 people were killed and 141 were injured. More than half of the terror attacks in India in 2016 took place in four states – Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), Chhattisgarh, Manipur and Jharkhand. The geographical areas show that left-wing extremism led by Maoists also contributed to terror incidents in parts of east India. Jammu & Kashmir saw a surge of 93 per cent in terror attacks last year, the data says. The Indian home ministry’s annual report 2016-17, however, reports a 54.81 per cent increase in terror incidents in the state.

The US report said that “nearly two third of terror attacks in India were carried by Naxals” US says that compared to other countries that experienced most terror attacks in 2016, the diversity of perpetrator groups was much greater in India, with 52 active groups. There were 45 terror groups listed by US in its 2015 report. The US has identified 334 groups and organisations behind terror attacks in 2016 worldwide, while there were 288 such groups active in 2015.

It says that number of total attacks worldwide in 2016 reduced by 9 per cent (11,072) against 12,121 in 2015 and total deaths worldwide also reduced by 13 per cent in 2016 (25,621) as compared to 2015 (29,424). “This was largely due to fewer attacks and deaths in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen,” it said. Around 55 per cent of all attacks took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines out of 104 affected countries, while 75 per cent of all deaths due to terror attacks occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria and Pakistan.

A fighter with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group who was earmarked to be its next Malaysian chief in Syria has been killed in an airstrike, like reported the New Straits Times (NST) daily, citing intelligence sources.

Muhammad Fudhail Omar, 25, died last month in an airstrike by the Syrian military in besieged Raqqa, which served as the terror group’s de facto capital.

Known as Abu Qutaibah among his comrades, Fudhail was poised to step into the shoes of Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, the former leader and recruiter of Malaysians fighting for ISIS in Syria. Muhammad Wandy was killed in a drone attack in April, and is widely believed to be the mastermind for a hand grenade attack at a nightclub in Malaysia last year.

Three other Malaysians who could be candidates for senior posts are Muhammad Rafi Udin, Wan Mohd Aquil Wan Zainal Abidin (or Akil Zainal) and Muhammad Zahar. Malaysian authorities believe they are still in Raqqa.

According to the NST, Fudhail, who speaks Arabic, made his way to Syria in May 2014 after being persuaded to do so by the late Ustaz Mohd Lotfi Ariffin, one of the first Malaysians to go to Syria a few months earlier.

“Fudhail, with other Malaysians in the group, then joined ISIS in late 2014, where he was given the task of teaching children of ISIS members Al-Quran recitation and guarding security posts,” sources told the NST.

Fudhail had also been actively disseminating the militant group’s ideology and recruiting new members via social media.

It is believed that a teenager from Sabah, who threatened on Facebook to kill Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was influenced by Fudhail. The 17-year-old, who has been arrested by the police, was also reportedly told to carry out a lone wolf attack and slaughter foreign tourists in Sandakan last year.

A source told the NST that like Wanndy, Fudhail had used funds donated by ISIS sympathisers for his personal gain.

“Besides actively recruiting Malaysians to join ISIS in Syria, he also demanded funds from them, telling them that the money would be used to help fighters.

“He, however, used all the money ‘donated’ by sympathisers, totalling some RM20,000, for his personal use,” the source added.

To date, 34 Malaysians have been killed in Iraq and Syria since 2013, while another 53 Malaysian ISIS members remain in Syria.

The Taliban insurgents launched a coordinated attack on the security posts in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, carrying out at least two car bombings using the Humvee armored vehicles, like reported by khaama.com.

According to the local government officials, the attack was launched earlier today in Gereshk district and a standoff is underway between the insurgents and the security forces.

The provincial government media office in a statement confirmed the launch of the attack and said two Humvee armored vehicles packed with explosives were detonated as the insurgents launched the attack.

The statement further added that the bombings have not incurred any major loss or destruction to the security posts and the security troops are prepared and are responding to the attack.

At least two army soldiers and three policemen sustained injuries in the attack and the Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Devices were destroyed before they reach the security posts, the provincial government added, the statement added.

The provincial government also said that the Afghan forces are currently engaged in gun battle with the Taliban insurgents in Adam Khan, Parcha, and Pashak areas, receiving air support as they continue to suppress the insurgents.

At least seven Daesh (Islamic State) rebels have been killed by their own explosives in the Pachiragam district of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said on Wednesday like reported by pajhwok.com.

Attaullah Khogyani, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the explosion took place in the Godar area of the district on Tuesday.

The militants had placed explosives in the house of a civilian named Multan Khan, he said. One of the landmines being made by the militants went off, killing seven fighters.

According to another report, security forces destroyed a huge quantity of explosives in Pachiragam. The spokesman confirmed the incident but he did not give details.