The Taliban in Afghanistan announced plans to ramp up military attacks on both Afghan and coalition security forces as part of a new spring offensive, like reported by foxnews.com.

News of the planned tactics, released in an email statement by a Taliban spokesman, followed a Taliban attack on forces at an army base on April 21 that killed at least 140 soldiers.

Around ten Taliban insurgents disguised as members of the military forced their way on to the base last Friday. Three attackers then detonated suicide vests while others used guns and grenades in the deadliest attack on armed forces in the country since 2001. Afghanistan’s defense minister and army chief of staff both resigned from their positions following the incident.

Now, the group is promising more of the same, sparking concern that violence and unrest in the country could worsen.

Citing a February report from the U.S. that noted the Taliban’s control of more than half of the country, the group referenced a drop from the previous 63.4 percent of the country they controlled. With “Operation Mansouri,” named after the Taliban leader killed in a 2016 U.S. drone strike, the Taliban apparently were looking to regain lost ground.

That includes an expansion of their political base in the country.

“Hence, keeping the evolving situation in mind, this year’s Mansouri Operations will differ from previous ones in nature and will be conducted with a twin-tracked political and military approach,” the spokesman said. There was no reference to any potential peace talks with the government.

The goal, the group said instead, is to develop institutions currently under their control while simultaneously establishing and maintaining “social justice and development” tools.

The new move will highlight a “twin-tracked political and military approach,” according to the BBC.

In areas held by the government, the group will aim for “foreign forces, their military and intelligence infrastructure,” while in areas held by the Taliban, the focus would shift to development and building. Propaganda will also be utilized “to help those deceived by the enemy see the truth of our struggle.”

At least two U.S. military service members were killed Thursday and another wounded during a raid against an ISIS target in eastern Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman told NBC News.

The operation occurred near Achin, a district in the south of Nangarhar province, where earlier this month the U.S. dropped the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used — also known as the “mother of all bombs” — to obliterate an ISIS tunnel complex.

Afghanistan remains mired in violence and bloodshed as the Taliban and ISIS fight over territory and clash against government and coalition forces.

While military officials say the non-nuclear bomb strike was a tactical one, questions have arisen as to whether the U.S. plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has suggested to Congress that the NATO coalition needs several thousand more troops in the country, although neither Defense Secretary Jim Mattis nor President Donald Trump have committed to that publicly. There are some 8,400 U.S. personnel stationed there now to train and advise Afghan forces and support a counterterrorism unit against the various militant networks.

Another American soldier was killed earlier this month while conducting operations against ISIS in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

Mattis made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan earlier this week and met with Afghan leaders and U.S. military officials as he hammers out recommendations on America’s strategy there.

“We are under no illusions about the challenges associated with this mission,” Mattis told reporters.

A U.S. drone strike killed several Pakistani Taliban militants in North Waziristan close to the Afghanistan border, one militant commander and intelligence sources said on Thursday, in a rare strike on Pakistani soil.

If confirmed, the air strike, which happened on Wednesday, would only be the second drone attack inside the nuclear-armed nation since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

Abdullah Wazirstani, spokesman for North Waziristan Taliban, a group linked to the Pakistani Taliban, said the strike killed three civilian “labourers” and seven militants from the Pakistani Taliban, which is also known as TTP.

Malik Waheedullah, a local tribal leader, told Reuters he saw two missiles strike a mountain home which caught fire. “I drove away as fast as I could,” he said.

One Pakistani intelligence official and government source said they believed the strike to be a U.S. drone attack.

U.S. officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

North Waziristan was a Taliban stronghold until 2014, when Pakistan’s military launched a major offensive against the group and pushed many of its fighters across the border into Afghanistan.

Sources from the TTP identified one of the dead militants as Abdur Rahman, a senior commander of the Pakistani Taliban.

U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan have become rare over the past few years. In its last high-profile attack inside Pakistan, the United States last May killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Three Indian soldiers were killed early on Thursday (27 April) morning after terrorists attacked an army base in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, like reported by ibtimes.co.uk.

The camp was located in Kupwara district near India’s de facto border with Pakistan, called the Line of Control. The Indian Army said that two attackers were also killed in gunfire that continued for nearly four hours.

The attack took place at 4am local time (11.30pm BST previous day), with a group of extremists opening fire on the Indian soldiers stationed at the camp. The army said that the insurgents were forcing their way into the facility in an apparent attempt to carry out a suicide attack, according to NDTV.

Official sources told the Press Trust of India that the victims of the attack included an army officer, identified as Captain Ayush. Five other soldiers were also injured.

The army has launched a search operation to check if other militants have infiltrated into the area.

The attack came a day after the state government banned social media in the state for a month after recent viral videos sparked tensions between the military and civilians. The videos were linked to the army’s handling of protesters opposing elections in the state.

One video showed the alleged shooting down of a stone-pelter by a soldier guarding an election booth, while another showed a man tied on the bonnet of an army jeep being paraded around the protesters.

In 2016, a militant attack on another army base in Uri, where 19 soldiers were killed, had prompted the army to carry out a surgical strike in the neighbouring area under Pakistan’s control. The Indian government accuses Pakistan of harbouring terrorists and have demanded the international community to declare the country as a terrorist state.

Fierce clashes between Taliban and Daesh gunmen left at least 91 fighters dead on both sides in northern Jawzjan province, local officials claimed on Wednesday.

Mohammad Reza Ghafori, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the clashes between the rival insurgent outfits were ongoing in Komarleg, Aqsai and Khak-i-Shahidan villages in Darzab district since late Tuesday.

He said the slain Taliban included dreaded commanders Sheikh Hamidullah, the Taliban-designated district chief for Qush Tapa district and Tawakkal, Shahzada Mazlomyar, and Mohibullah.

They were killed along with 76 associates and another 57 Taliban men were wounded. Daesh also lost 15 fighters with another 12 wounded.

The clashes were still underway and 45 motorcycles, three vehicles, weapons and ammunition remained on the battlefield.

The bloody encounter followed the kidnapping of three drug smugglers by Daesh loyalists in Dasht-i-Lali area of Qush Tapa district, according to the gubernatorial spokesman.

Rahmatullah Husher, the Darzab district’s administrative chief, said the three smugglers had arrived from western Herat and southern Helmand provinces to Dasht-i-Laili for a deal against 10 million afghanis with the Taliban.

But the smugglers were later kidnapped by Daesh along with a vehicle and weapons, the district chief said, citing it a reason behind the clashes.

The Taliban repeatedly asked Daesh to release the kidnappers, but their request was ignored and then the Taliban decided to face Daesh.

The Taliban came under Daesh attack when they entered Darzab district and a fierce firefight ensued and was still ongoing.

Sufi Mohammad, a resident of the locality, said the bodies of slain militants were still lying at the site.

He said local residents could not differentiate between dead bodies of the Taliban and Daesh.

Mohammad said Daesh had taken more than 60 Taliban men in custody.

He said a Taliban commander, Haji Nokur, was among the captives. He said local residents were leaving their homes and trying to escape the area.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s spokesman, said they were trying to contact their fighters at the site but a contact was yet to be established. He promised updates to the media about the developing story as soon as possible.

Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration has admitted that its checkpoints are not effective in preventing local militants from crossing into the southern Philippine territories of the Abu Sayyaf Group, some factions of which are pledged to the Islamic State, like reported by time.com .

The disclosure is likely to underscore concerns that insurgent groups in the southern Philippines, where some observers have suggested ISIS could build a new caliphate, are able to bolster their ranks with foreign fighters.

An Indonesian passport was found by Philippine counter-terrorism forces in the country’s volatile south, the Jakarta Post reports, prompting the directorate’s admission.

In an interview with the Post Tuesday, directorate spokesperson Agung Sampurno said that Indonesia’s two check points at Miangas and Marore Island could not sufficiently screen seaborne militants, who have for years used traditional sea routes to move between the two archipelago nations.

“They also smuggle weapons via these hubs,” he said.

There is nothing new about foreign fighters entering Mindanao: the primary target of the Philippine government’s pyrrhic victory at Mamasapano, which left 44 troops dead in 2015, was a Malaysian bomb-maker. Neither is it unusual for Abu Sayyaf Group, which frequently kidnaps Indonesian fishermen for ransom, to cross in the other direction.

However, Agung’s comments come amid fears that the Islamic State will increase its footprint in Southeast Asia as it loses ground in the middle east.

“There is concern that ISIS may well seek to declare a caliphate, an Islamic caliphate, in the southern Philippines,” Australia’s foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop said last month.

At least 20 insurgents belonging to Taliban’s Quetta Council were arrested during an operation in southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security (NDS), said the militants were operating in four different groups directly under the command of Quetta Council.

A statement by NDS said the militants were appointed to carry out a series of attacks in Kandahar city.

The detained militants have confessed that they were tasked with the target killings, attack on civilian and military convoys belonging to the government, roadside bombings and other insurgency related activities, the statement added.

The anti-governemnt armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.

Kandahar is among the relatively calm provinces where the security situation had improved during the recent years but the anti-government armed militant groups have increased their insurgency activities in some of its districts during the recent months.

This comes as a group of six militants involved in major terrorist attacks were arrested by the provincial intelligence directorate operatives in Kandahar earlier this month.

According to the local officials, the group was planning and coordinating attacks on military bases, security check posts and logistics convoys and was also involved in the assassination of the government employees, tribal elders and other influential figures in Kandahar.

The brazen Taliban attack on an Afghan military base in northern Afghanistan on Friday that killed more than 130 Afghan soldiers represented a major intelligence failure, like reported by washingtonpost.com. A photograph by the Taliban shows 10 assailants dressed in Afghan army uniforms who breached multiple security checkpoints at the base in military vehicles before going on a killing spree. In a Twitter message, a Taliban spokesperson claimed that four Afghan soldiers were Taliban infiltrators who helped the attackers in entering the base.

Such incidents, also known as insider attacks, typically involve a disgruntled Afghan soldier who facilitates the Taliban in infiltrating Afghan forces and staging attacks. Strangely, however, there has been little study of the causes or consequences of such attacks, which threaten to undo the fitful military progress made after nearly 16 years of Afghan war. In a new study, I find that insider attacks have increasingly become the preferred war-fighting tactic of the Taliban, a group that well understands how to apply limited resources for maximum effect.

In fact, despite a reputation for cultural myopia, the Taliban’s use of such attacks reveals that it understands Afghan military and intelligence gaps far better than its opponents do. Using Afghan soldiers to plot large-scale attacks on Afghan or U.S. troops is in effect a “cultural weapon” that targets a key weakness in Afghan and the U.S. civil-military apparatus: a deep aversion to casualties. Since 2007, such insider attacks have killed more than 157 NATO personnel, mostly U.S. troops, and more than 550 Afghan soldiers. At times, the attacks have also served as an effective tool for the Taliban to drive a wedge between Afghan and U.S. forces. In 2012 and 2013, NATO forces even discontinued joint operations below the battalion level with Afghan troops and temporarily stopped training Afghan forces to avoid the risk of being killed by disgruntled Afghan soldiers.

The Taliban employs at least four methods to stage such attacks. First, the group infiltrates Afghan forces as a way not only to target Afghan and NATO personnel, but also to collect tactical intelligence and undermine cooperation. Most Taliban infiltration is in the ranks of the poorly vetted Afghan local police, a network of U.S.-funded village-defense units that receive basic training from U.S. forces to protect their communities. Second, the Taliban recruits rogue and aggrieved Afghan soldiers to either facilitate insider attacks or personally conduct attacks on behalf of the insurgency. Taliban members often coerce Afghan soldiers through financial incentives, ideological pressure and intimidation — including the kidnapping of family members — as well as influences through tribal networks. Third, the Taliban has become adept at impersonation, with fighters posing as Afghan police or army personnel to evade security inspection and barriers while infiltrating checkpoints. The group frequently uses counterfeit Afghan military uniforms and identity cards to penetrate Afghan security ranks. At times, these tactics have involved some level of facilitation or complicity by rogue Afghan soldiers, especially in providing identification cards and access to bases. And, fourth, the Taliban exploits those disgruntled Afghan soldiers who are personally motivated to stage or facilitate an attack for reasons ranging from grievances rooted in personal clashes and insults to cultural misunderstandings, disrespect for religious beliefs or local norms, civilian casualties and miscommunication. At times, combat stress is a factor. But the Taliban often exploits these weaknesses to convince resentful soldiers to either join forces with insurgents or react with their guns.

Nonetheless, as counterinsurgency is an intelligence-driven effort, the Afghan intelligence services bear the responsibility for such Taliban infiltration. Unfortunately, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country’s main intelligence agency, faces dangerous gaps in intelligence collection and analysis, as well as effective leadership to confront the Taliban’s new tactics. The NDS’s human intelligence presence across Afghanistan’s 34 provinces is negligible; its surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities are deficient; and its sabotage activities are minuscule. Meanwhile, Afghan intelligence and security operations are often not in sync, and tactical operations typically lack intelligence-gathering components that produce information for future operations. Despite infighting and divisions in the insurgency, the NDS has not done a good job in infiltrating the Taliban ranks.

The NDS places little emphasis on its analytical functions to efficiently process and analyze intelligence collection. At times, the NDS’s ownership of information has been questionable. It is also highly politicized, factional, corrupt and a place where personal agendas and biases warp the use of intelligence. Interference by political strongmen and former intelligence chiefs in security affairs is a regular occurrence, which has led to intelligence leakages and has compromised operational security.

In the end, Afghan forces are operators and not intelligence collectors, and they rely heavily on the NDS for intelligence. But because of critical shortfalls in Afghan intelligence, it put the onus on the NDS for failing to prevent Friday’s deadly attack. These operational gaps resulted in a staggering 15,000 casualties among Afghan forces in the first eight months of 2016 alone, in addition to a 2.4 percent attrition rate each month, which weakens the military’s operational posture.

Serious measures should include a modest surge in the NDS’s presence in the field and improvements in the agency’s collection and analytical capabilities. Ultimately, if the machinery of Afghan intelligence were effective, the Taliban’s infiltration would be categorically minimized and so would the odds of resentful Afghan soldiers becoming willing insiders for insurgent missions to kill Afghan forces.

Taliban insurgents on Monday attacked a US-operated base in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost, officials said, but gave few immediate details of an assault that coincided with a visit to Kabul by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, like reported by jpost.com .

The attackers had detonated a car bomb at an entrance to Camp Chapman, a secretive facility manned by US forces and private military contractors, said Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

But he had little immediate information on any damage or casualties.

“I am aware of a car bomb attack at one of the gates in the US base, but we are not allowed there to get more details,” the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, Capt. William Salvin, confirmed the car bomb attack. He said there appeared to be a number of Afghan casualties but none among US or coalition personnel at the base.

The attack came just three days after more than 140 Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack on their base by Taliban fighters disguised in military uniforms.