7
Ministry of defense
PAO
Media Analysis section
Media Analysis Executive Summary for
16 March – 2015
Islamic State threat cannot be underestimated: CEO Abdullah Abdullah
Khaama press
Abdullah Abdullah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the government says that some Taliban have changed their flag from white to black but this does not mean they have gained more strength.
But he says that Islamic State threat cannot be underestimated too.
Abdullah has also said that Islamic State is a threat for the globe and a lot needs to be done for eliminating them.
Regarding the possible contacts between Taliban and Islamic State, Abdullah said that Taliban who have shown willingness fornegotiating with the government do not have fundamental connections with Islamic State.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah who is on a three days visit in India says that they are eyeing closely on preventing IS from improving.
In the mean time, the recent abduction of 30 passengers by unidentified gunmen in southern Zabul province have made civilians concerned over the increase of Islamic State activities in Afghanistan.
The responsibility of the kidnapping is not yet claimed by any group but local elders who tried to secure the release of the abducted passengers believe the gunmen belong to the Islamic State.
Taliban have rejected hand in the abduction.
Al-QaedaEnjoys CIA Secret Funds For Afghanistan: NY Times
Tolo news
About $1 million of money which was provided by the CIA to a secret Afghan government fund ended up in the hands of Al-Qaeda in 2010 when it was used to pay a release for an Afghan diplomat, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
To release Abdul Khaliq Farahi, who was the Afghan consul-general in Peshawar of Pakistan, the Afghan officials first turned to a secret fund that the CIA bankrolled with monthly cash deliveries to the presidential palace in Kabul, the times said citing several Afghan officials involved in the episode.
The Afghan government, they said, had already squirreled away about $1 million from that fund.
Farahi was kidnapped in 2008 and handed over to Al-Qaeda, according to the Times report. He was released two years later after Afghanistan paid Al-Qaeda $5 million, a fifth of which was CIA money that came from an Afghan government fund that received monthly cash deliveries from the agency.
The Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had at first been concerned about the payment, fearing the CIA knew about the money and had tainted it with poison, radiation or a tracking device, the newspaper reported.
The release payments were found in the 2011 raid by U.S. Navy Seals who killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The CIA's contribution to Qaeda's bottom line, though, was not well-laid trap. It was just another in a long list of examples of how the United States, largely because of poor oversight and loose financial controls, has sometimes inadvertently financed the very militants it is fighting, the report said.
While refusing to pay ransoms for Americans kidnapped by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or, more recently, the Islamic State, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars over the last decade at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which has been siphoned off to enemy fighters.
US halts diplomatic operation in Saudi Arabia
Khaama press
United State officials say their diplomatic operation will be halted Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday due to “heightened security concerns.”
A statement issued by the United States embassy states that all telephone lines in the embassy and consulates will also be down.
The state department has also warned the Americans to avoid un-necessary travels and be extra cautioned in the case of travels.
US officials have not pointed specific threat but an earlier statement from the embassy stated that terrorist organizations are planning to attack or kidnap western workers.
The statement stated “As of early March, individuals associated with a terrorist organization could be targeting Western oil workers, possibly to include those U.S. citizens working for oil companies in the Eastern Province, for an attack(s) and/or kidnapping(s).”
But an intelligence source told Fox News that it was a car bomb threat that triggered the measures, and was serious enough that the facilities will have only essential staff over the next two days.
Saudi Arabia in the southwest of Asia has better security but some of its neighboring countries like Iraq and Yemen are in wars.
Three Children Killed in Nangarhar Roadside Mine Blast
Tolo news
At least three children were killed and four others including two women injured in a roadside mine blast in eastern Nangarahr province on Saturday evening, local officials said.
The blast took place in Hashemkhil area in Sherzad district of Nangarhar while a civil vehicle struck a roadside mine, spokesman for acting provincial governor, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.
"Most of the victims were children and the injured were taken to a nearby hospital," Abdulzai said.
However, no group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Iraqi Kurds Claim Islamic State Militants Used Chemical Weapon
VOA news
The Kurdish regional government in Iraq says it has evidence that Islamic State militants used a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces.
The Kurdistan Region Security Council released a statement Saturday alleging that chlorine was used in a January suicide bombing in northern Iraq.
The statement said a lab analysis found chlorine traces in samples from the scene of the attack. The Kurds said the lab was located in a partner nation in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, but they did not identify the nation or the lab.
The January 23 suicide bombing took place on a road between the Islamic State-held city of Mosul and the Syrian border, according to the statement.
The Islamic State group has been suspected of using chlorine in previous attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Saturday's allegation by the Kurdish government could not be independently verified.
It came as thousands of Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia members paused their push to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group for a second day. Islamic State snipers, roadside bombs and booby traps have slowed down the offensive, which has already succeeded in seizing several areas.
Military commanders were reportedly planning their strategy for taking final control of the city.
Tikrit, just 140 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, has both symbolic and strategic value. It is the hometown of the late dictator Saddam Hussein and is also seen as a key step toward retaking Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.
At a news conference Saturday in Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. knows about and "understands" Iran's involvement in the offensive. He said that while the U.S. does not coordinate with Iran, it knows Iran is also opposed to the Islamic State group.
On Friday, the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said the militants were well-armed and well-financed but not invincible.
John Brennan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes had "softened" many of the Islamic State forces and that there were serious signs that the group's "engine is suffering."
"We see there is some dissension in the ranks," he said. Controlling territory and administering it "is not really the strong suit of some of these thugs."
Twin blasts at churches in Pakistan kill five, wound 40
Reuters)
- Bombs outside two churches in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed five people and wounded more than 40 during Sunday services, rescue workers said, and witnesses said quick action by a security guard prevented many more deaths.
A Pakistani Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility.
The blasts in a majority Christian suburb of the eastern city went off minutes apart. Police said it seemed that the blasts targeted two churches, one Catholic and one Protestant, that are very close to each other.
"I was sitting at a shop near the church when a blast jolted the area. I rushed towards the spot and saw the security guard scuffle with a man who was trying to enter the church, after failing, he blew himself up," said witness Amir Masih.
"I saw his body parts flying through the air."
The guard died as well, he said. It was not clear if the first blast was also a suicide bomber, Masih said.
Rescue services spokesman Sajjad Hussain said five people had been killed and more than 40 people injured.
"The rescue operation is still underway and the death toll may increase," he said.
Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Militants inPakistanhave attacked Christians and other religious minorities often over the last decade or more.
Lahore is the capital of Punjab, Pakistan's wealthiest and most populous province and the political heartland of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The city is generally considered peaceful compared with many other areas ofPakistan, but violence there has been increasing after the government's failed attempts to hold peace talks with the Taliban last year.
After the talks failed, the military launched an offensive in the remote northwestern region of North Waziristan along the Afghan border to push the Taliban from the last major region they controlled.
The military now holds the major urban centers there, but residents say many militants fled before the offensive began and others remain in rural areas.
Elderly Nun Gang-Raped in India
VOA news
An elderly nun in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal was gang-raped Saturday by a group of men after she tried to stop them from robbing a missionary school.
Police said the six men entered the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in Ranaghat, about 80 kilometers northeast of Kolkata, the state capital, early in the day. None of the attackers has been arrested.
The nun, said to be in her 70s, was hospitalized in serious condition.
Scores of angry students, their parents and teachers blocked a nearby highway and railroad tracks for several hours, demanding swift police action leading to the arrest of the culprits.
The attack came at a time of growing concern about sexual violence against women in India.
This month, India prohibited the release of the film "India's Daughter," based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman, and also asked video-sharing website YouTube to remove all links to the documentary.
The Indian government said it was banning the film on the ground it could fuel public anger because it includes an interview with Mukesh Singh, one of six men who raped the physiotherapy student.
In the film, Singh told a BBC filmmaker that “a girl is far more responsible for rape than a man.”
Days after the ban, thousands of people stormed a high-security prison in northeastern India, dragged out a rape suspect and beat him to death.
7