China has banned burqas, veils and “abnormal” beards in a predominantly Muslim province in what it claims is a crackdown on Islamic extremism, like reported by independent.co.uk.

The measures, which also force people to watch state television, follow decades of ethnic and religious discrimination against Xinjiang’s 10 million-strong ethic Uyghur population.

New regulations, to come into force on Saturday, require government workers in airports, railway stations and other public places “dissuade” women who fully cover their faces and bodies from entering and report them to police.

They also prohibit the “abnormal growing of beards and naming of children to exaggerate religious fervour”, without giving specifics.

It will be forbidden to “reject or refuse radio, television and other public facilities and services”, marrying using religious rather than legal procedures and “using the name of Halal to meddle in the secular life of others”.

Rules published in state-controlled media continue: “Parents should use good moral conduct to influence their children, educate them to revere science, pursue culture, uphold ethnic unity and refuse and oppose extremism.”

The document also bans not allowing children to attend regular school, not abiding by family planning policies and deliberately damaging legal documents.

Successive bans on select “extremist behaviours” have previously been introduced in in areas of Xinjiang, including stopping people with headscarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses in at least one city.

The 15 new rules expand an existing list and apply them to the whole province in what the Chinese government claims is a campaign against religious extremism.

At least 57 Daesh and Taliban militants have been killed airstrikes and a ground operation in different areas of eastern Nangarhar province, an official said on Thursday according to pajhwok.com.

The joint Afghan-US air and ground offensives were conducted during the past 24 hours. Twenty-seven Daesh rebels were killed in Kot district by Afghan troops, the 201^st Selab Corps in the eastern zone said in a statement.

Separately, 24 Taliban were killed and four others wounded during a US drone strike in the Pirkhel area of Khogyani district, the provincial police spokesman said.

Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal told Pajhwok Afghan News that the Taliban chief for Chaparhar district and three notorious commanders were among the dead.

Separately, six Daesh insurgents, including three foreigners, were killed during US drone strikes in Awghaz and Spenzhay areas of Haska Mena and Nazyan districts, Mashriqiwal said.

He added a large quantity of weapons and ammunition were also destroyed as a result of the operation. However, he did not say anything about casualties among security forces and civilians.

The rivalry between Afghanistan and Pakistan has created room for terrorists of the militant Islamic State (IS) group to build a foothold in the region, recent US reports on the issue point out, reports The Dawn on March 29.

Last week, the United States hosted a 68-nation conference in Washington to formulate a joint strategy for combating the IS terrorists.

In his address to the conference, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not only noted the group’s presence in the Pak-Afghan region but also pointed out that the group had carried out “many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan”.

In the region, the group is known as the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISK) and operates from its bases in the Afghan areas along the Pak-Afghan border.

In a recent report on ISK, the Congress-funded US Institute of Peace underlines the link between this group and Pakistani militant organisations to show how the Afghan-Pakistan rivalry benefited the terrorists.

The USIP report quotes from a July 2016 report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, which claims that Afgh­anistan’s intelligence agency, “the National Direc­to­rate of Security, has supported the militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam and elements of TTP since 2014 “with the aim of playing these militants against Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistan’s long-time support of the Afghan Taliban.” Fighters from both groups later joined ISK.

Sixteen Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been killed and four others wounded during a clash in the Khakrez district of southern Kandahar province, a reliable sources said on Tuesday, like reported by pajhwok.com.

A security official, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan New the clash erupted Monday night when militants stormed security forces check-posts in the district.

Police spokesman Zia Durrani confirmed the clash which took place in the Arghawan locality. He said 16 security forces and 20 militants were killed and wounded in the overnight firefight.

Security officials from the 205^th Atal Military Corps could not be reached for comments.

Separately, militants attacked police check-posts in the Bakht Mano locality on Uruzgan-Kandahar highway.

Durrani said rebels attack on Bakht Mano was repulsed. Two policemen have been wounded in the attack. He did not say how many militants were killed or wounded.

Police spokesman said clearing operation was underway in the area that witnessed insurgent activities in the recent past.

He said security forces were defusing landmines planted by rebels in the area.

The U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed that a U.S. counter-terrorism airstrike, conducted on March 19 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, resulted in the death of Qari Yasin, a well-known al-Qaida terrorist leader, like reported by aranews.net.

Yasin was responsible for the deaths of dozens in Afghanistan, including two American service members.

“Yasin, a senior terrorist figure from Balochistan, Pakistan, had ties to Tehrik-e Taliban and had plotted multiple al-Qaida terror attacks, including the Sept. 20, 2008, bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens of innocent people, among them U.S. Air Force Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez and Navy Cryptologic Technician Third Class Petty Officer Matthew J. O’Bryant,” the U.S. Department of Defense said.

“Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed and six members of the team injured,” it added.

“The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice,” said Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

General John Nicholson, US top commander in Afghanistan has requested for more troops to prevent the country from becoming a safe hideout for the Islamic State (IS), which is also known as Daesh terrorist group. He said that the US and Europe need to send 5,000 more forces to Afghanistan, like reported by afghanistantimes.af .

“We cannot afford to walk away from Afghanistan,” Nicholson told The Sunday Times of London. “This is where the war against terrorism started on 9/11. Failure here would embolden terrorist globally.” Nicholson will ask for additional troops at NATO Summit in May with the backing of US Defense Secretary, James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, the report said.

Currently, 8,400 US troops and 5,000 troops from other NATO countries are stationed in Afghanistan. The call for more troops has come when recently US has decided to deploy about 300 US marines to Afghanistan’s embattled southern Helmand province as part of a NATO mission to train and advise local forces.

The soldiers will train and advise Afghan security forces pushing back against Taliban fighters who have taken most of Helmand after the end of NATO’s combat mission and withdrawal of most US forces from the province in 2014. Almost all of the Helmand’s districts, expect for the provincial capital, Lashkargah, are either heavily embattled or fully controlled by the Taliban insurgents.

Recently local officials said that the Taliban has captured Sangin, a strategic district of Helmand province on Thursday. According to them, the Afghan security forces have retreated from district to avoid civilian casualties.

Provincial council member, Bashir Ahmad Shaker said, “Afghan security forces retracted from Sangin and it took them three days to move to Shaker Shila area, they left behind military equipment which were not usable and were destroyed by the airstrikes after they left the area.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says there are concerns the Islamic State group could establish a caliphate in the southern Philippines, bringing the threat of terrorism right to Australia’s doorstep, like reported by radioaustralia.net.au

The United States has warned that the militant Islamic State (IS) group has stepped up its efforts in recruiting young people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, like reported by aninews.in .

Speaking at the 10th Global Coalition ministerial meeting on IS in Washington on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson hinted at establishing a safe zone in the Middle East for sheltering Syrian refugees, reports Dawn.

“The United States will increase pressure on ISIS and Al Qaeda and will work to establish interim zones of stability, through ceasefires, to allow refugees to return home,” he said, adding that Mr Tillerson said that since the United States and its allies had broken their back in the Middle East, IS militants were moving to other regions to recruit fighters.

“Today, . Daesh (IS) is resorting to many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and many other places in Europe in order to send a message that they are still standing and they want for those young people to go fight in its ranks,” he said.

The 68-member global coalition against the IS is the largest in history and 23 of its partners have over 9,000 troops in Iraq and Syria to back the effort to defeat IS militants. Since Pakistan is not a member, it did not attend the ministerial conference.

US General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, for a few thousand more troops to help Kabul defeat the militants.

At recent briefings in Washington, US General John Nicholson Gen Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, said that almost 70 per cent of IS fighters in Afghanistan were Pakistani Taliban who joined the group after they were forced out of their country.