Ramzan ceasefire: Armed encounters from 2015 to 2017 rose 50% over 2012-14

The Ramzan ceasefire announced by the Indian government on May 16, 2018, comes after a period of heightened armed violence and killings in Kashmir. An IndiaSpend analysis of Jammu & Kashmir Police data shows that in the three years since March 2015, when the current government assumed power in the state, armed encounters between militants and security forces have increased by 53% over the preceding three years. Deaths in conflict have similarly increased by 51%.

The Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party formed a coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir in March 2015. Data suggest an increase in violence and related deaths since then, particularly after the July 2016 killing of militant commander Burhan Wani–209 militants were killed in 2017, up 65% from 136 in 2016.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to ISIS militants: Have patience, step up your attack

The leader of the Islamic State group urged followers to burn their enemies everywhere and target "media centers of the infidels," according to an audio recording released Thursday that the extremists said was by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The reclusive leader of Islamic State, who has only appeared in public once, also vowed to continue fighting and lavished praise on his jihadis for their valor in the battlefield — despite the militants' loss of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in July.

The recording was released by the Islamic State-run al-Furqan outlet, which has in the past released messages from al-Baghdadi and other top figures of the extremist group. The voice in the over 46-minute-long audio sounded much like previous recordings of al-Baghdadi. His last previous purported message was released in November, also in an audio recording.

"You soldiers of the caliphate, heroes of Islam and carriers of banners: light a fire against your enemies," said al-Baghdadi, a shadowy cleric who has been surrounded by controversy since the Sunni terror group emerged from al-Qaida in Iraq, its forerunner.

Russian officials said in June there was a "high probability" that al-Baghdadi had died in a Russian airstrike on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group's de facto capital. US officials later said they believed he was still alive.

Al-Baghdadi's whereabouts are unknown but he is believed to be in Islamic State' dwindling territory in eastern Syria. The Islamic State-held cities of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour are under siege and likely too dangerous for him to hide in. Some Islamic State leadership is believed to have gone to the nearby town of Mayadeen, and the group still holds a stretch of the Euphrates River from Deir el-Zour to the Iraqi border, as well as remote desert areas along the border.
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Kashmir encounter: 2 soldiers killed, 3 injured in ongoing Shopian gunfight

Two soldiers have been killed and three injured in the on-going gunfight in South Kashmir's Shopian district. However, there is no confirmation about the number of militants killed in the operation.

One army soldier was killed and four others injured on Saturday as a fierce gunfight raged in Awneera village of Shopian district.

The injured soldiers were shifted to army's base hospital in Badami Bagh area of Srinagar city.

"One of the injured soldiers succumbed in the hospital today", police said on Sunday.

After receiving intelligence inputs that a group of two to three militants were hiding in the village, security forces including Rashtriya Rifles, state police and the CRPF surrounded the area on Saturday.

As the security forces surrounded the hiding militants, they were fired upon, triggering the gunfight, police said.

Unconfirmed reports said two militants had been killed during the gunfight, but there has been no official confirmation of this so far.
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Mosul is 'liberated', but the fight against IS and its ideology continues

After an offensive lasting nearly nine months, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, walked through the streets of Mosul on July 9 after Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes “liberated” the city from so-called Islamic State (IS). Abadi was there to congratulate security forces for the victory.

Iraqis have been waiting for this moment for three years, since IS captured the country’s second city and other key areas in 2014.

Since the announcement of the recapture of Mosul’s iconic al-Nuri mosque, destroyed by IS in late June, social media has been buzzing with Arabic hashatags such as #thestateofmythhasfallen, #Mosulisbeingliberated, and #tweetforpeace.

The general reaction in Iraq and on social media to the recapture of Mosul has been one of joy and celebration, yet for many, the feelings are mixed. Although it is a huge blow for IS, the victory does not mean that IS has been defeated across Iraq. Battles are still awaiting in Tel Afar in the north-west, to Hawija and other areas in Anbar Province in western Iraq. And even when these are retaken, IS will continue its regional and global insurgency.

IS’s territorial caliphate is falling, but its ideology – which argues that its members follow the “true Islam”, fighting heretics and unbelievers – is not.

For Iraqis, smiles are mixed with tears, and optimism mixed with fears. Many thousands of lives have been lost and too much blood shed in the battle against IS. Many more thousands have been displaced and the destruction has been widespread. Iraqis rightfully ask whether all of this could have been avoided and whether those responsible will ever be held accountable. They are aware of the massive challenges ahead, politically, economically, and socially. These include the conflicting interests of the forces fighting on the ground, as well as those of countries such as Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US, whose interventions are often seen as destabilising to the Iraqi state.
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Facebook post casts shadow on crackdown of alleged Islamists in Bangladesh

Five young Bangladeshis accused of being Islamist militants surrendered to authorities on Sunday, an official said, after a lengthy siege that prompted questions about heavy-handed police tactics.

Elite counter-terror troops surrounded a one-storey house in the central district of Narsingdi on Saturday afternoon after a tip-off that Islamist extremists were holed up there.

The information came from militants arrested in April after a raid on an extremist hideout that left 10 people including a senior police officer dead, said Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan.

The five young men in Narsingdi had "surrendered peacefully, which was our main goal", after a siege that lasted more than 20 hours, he told AFP.

But the incident raised questions about police tactics after one of the five alleged Islamists took to Facebook to profess his innocence, urging authorities not to storm the building.

"Attention journalists and law enforcers, we are innocent. Please search us if you can find anything. We are locked from outside. Please rescue us," Abuzafar Mia wrote on the social media website.

A second post, addressing Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina, was shared at the same time saying: " Honourable Prime Minister, please rescue us. We are innocent. We are with the Awami League. We are victims of a conspiracy.Please rescue us. We are ordinary students. Please help us."

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