The Red Unit, the Taliban's version of special forces that operates throughout Afghanistan and is often at the tip of the spear of assaults on district centers, military bases and outposts, is said to have initiated the fighting in Dasht-i-Archi district. At least 30 Afghan soldiers were killed during the assault. Read more →
Ansar al-Islam raided an Assad regime military position in the Latakia province yesterday, killing more than two dozen Assad loyalists. The attack was widely celebrated on Sunni jihadist social media channels. Ansar al-Islam is a small jihadist group that originated in Iraq, but has fought in Syria for years. Read more →
The deadly bombing is the first major attack executed by the Taliban group since Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud assumed command of the group in late June. Read more →
The Islamic State claimed a suicide bombing that targeted the Assad regime and Russian forces in southern Syria yesterday. The group claims that 50 people were killed or wounded, while a pro-regime source reported "scores" of casualties. The operation was conducted by a jihadist dispatched by a new Islamic State "province," but the group has operated in the area for years under another brand. Read more →
The Taliban reiterated that it views itself as the sole representative of the Afghan people, while those who fight for the Afghan government are "puppets" of the United States. Read more →
The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Afghanistan and Syria has long operated as part of the Taliban-al Qaeda axis. Earlier this year, however, the TIP's Syrian branch sided with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) during its battles with other rebel groups. This infighting and related events have complicated the picture with respect to the TIP in Syria. One TIP-affiliated outlet claimed earlier this year that the group's senior management had sent new leadership from Afghanistan to Syria. Read more →
The US Department of State added Saraya al Ashtar, an Iranian-supported group that openly flaunts its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps affiliation, to its list of global terrorists. Read more →
The Taliban described an upcoming conference of religious scholars that will be held in Saudi Arabia later this week as illegitimate and urged Islamic clerics to boycott the meeting. Read more →
The Secretary-General of Kata'ib Sayyid al Shuhada, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, said he is a "soldier" of Abdel Malek al Houthi, the leader of Yemen's Houthi movement. Read more →
Yesterday's ambush was the highest death toll in a terrorist attack in the country since the Islamic State's foray into Ben Gardane in March 2016. Read more →
Liwa Zulfiqar's secretary general was seen in a Syrian military operations room for ongoing operations in Syria's southern Deraa province. Read more →
The Pentagon and the US intelligence community have been consistently wrong about al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan, and evidence of strategic ties between the two groups does indeed exist. Read more →
