Sanaullah Ghaffari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajar, is reportedly the ISIS-Khorasan (Daesh) branch leader and is holed up in Pakistan, Reuters reports. The 29-year-old took over as leader in 2020 and under his leadership the group has carried out extreme attacks as a means of recruiting, Reuters reported. Reuters noted that little was known about Ghafari before the deadly 2021 […]

Following the March 22, 2024 attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Moscow, in which an estimated 137 people were killed and for which the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility, major Urdu-language and English-language dailies in Pakistan published editorials arguing that both the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) and the Islamic State Khurasan Province […]

After Shehbaz Sharif was elected earlier this month to another term as the Pakistani Prime Minister, he knew his new government didn’t have any time to hesitate since the country faced maybe its worst economic–political–security crisis. Putting aside the growing inflation and the urgent need for a new, costly agreement with the IMF, Sharif needed to find a proper solution […]

On Monday, Pakistan launched airstrikes against several suspected hideouts of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces. The Afghan Taliban responded by firing on Pakistani positions along the border, according to the Afghan defense ministry. Pakistan’s defense and foreign ministries called the strikes on Afghanistan “retaliatory,” likely referring to the suicide bombing against a Pakistani military post […]

Balochistan’s Information Minister is psychologically pressuring the Taliban with his dramatic tweet about Pakistan invading and annexing the Wakhan Corridor in the event that it experiences another terrorist attack from Afghan-linked groups. Balochistan’s Information Minister Jan Achakzai tweeted on Wednesday per Google Translate that “If another terrorist attack takes place in Pakistan, the Taliban have already been warned. There will […]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires over Islamabad’s airstrike inside Afghanistan in the early hours of Monday morning. The ministry presented the charge d’affaires with a letter of protest and advised the new civilian government to curb anti-Afghanistan actions and to not ‘complicate’ relations between the two Muslim countries. […]

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Sunday that “terrorism” in the South Asian country was being conducted mostly from Afghanistan. This comes a day after militants killed seven Pakistan Army soldiers in Waziristan in the northwest of the country. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Islamic Emirate of not cracking down on militant groups in Afghanistan. However, the Islamic […]

The Islamic Emirate said Monday that Pakistan had carried out airstrikes in the early hours of the morning, which left eight people dead in Paktika and Khost provinces. According to a statement issued by the IEA, the airstrikes took place at about 3am in the Barmal district in Khost province and Sepira district in Paktika province. Six people were killed […]

Pakistan confirmed Monday that its military had carried out “intelligence-based” aerial strikes inside Afghanistan to punish “terrorists” responsible for killing hundreds of civilians and security forces in cross-border raids. A foreign ministry statement said the counterterrorism operation had targeted fugitive commanders allied with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization operating out of Afghan sanctuaries. Afghanistan’s Taliban government […]

The Afghan Taliban launched attacks across the border into Pakistan on Monday in response to Pakistani military airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan. The Pakistani military, which helped the Afghan Taliban seize control of the country, targeted members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is sheltered and supported by the Afghan Taliban and is a a close ally of […]