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Air strikes destroy IS radio station in Afghanistan
by Staff Writers
Jalalabad, Afghanistan (AFP) Feb 3, 2016


Pakistani cleric praises Indian air base attack, warns of escalation
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan (AFP) Feb 3, 2016 - A Pakistani firebrand cleric on Wednesday praised a deadly Indian air base attack last month that threatened to scupper peace efforts between the nuclear rivals.

Hafiz Saeed, alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and leader of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group, encouraged further violence following the air base assault in Pathankot that left seven Indian soldiers dead.

Addressing a rally of around one thousand people in the disputed Pakistan-administered Kashmir region, Saeed said: "800,000 Indian troops are committing genocide on Kashmiris. Don't they have a right to carry out Pathankot style attacks for their defence?"

Saeed, who remains a free man, also lauded Kashmiri militant leader Sayed Salahuddin, who heads the United Jihad Council (UJC) that has claimed responsibility for the attack.

"You have only seen one attack on Pathankot. Matters could easily escalate."

Crowds at the rally shouted slogans including "The war will continue until the liberation of Kashmir" and "We are ready for jihad".

Indian officials believe another group -- the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) -- was behind the siege.

Strategic analyst Ayesha Siddiqa told AFP Saeed's praise of Salahuddin could be part of a "deflection strategy" to steer blame away from JeM, and by extension Pakistan, where it is based.

The air base attack occurred just a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a surprise visit to Lahore, raising hopes for peace between the two countries which have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Further planned talks between the top diplomats of both countries that had been due in mid-January were subsequently postponed.

Saeed's freedom and his frequent calls for jihad against India irk New Delhi, which considers JuD -- a UN designated "terror organisation" -- to be no more than a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.

Air strikes have destroyed a radio station run by Islamic State jihadists in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, two months after the group took to the airwaves in a sign of their growing reach.

The Pashto-language "Voice of the Caliphate" beamed IS propaganda in irregular nightly broadcasts from an undisclosed location in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan.

The Afghan defence ministry said the programme was broadcast from a moving vehicle and air strikes on Monday destroyed the transmission equipment hidden in the basement of a house in volatile Achin district.

"The radio programme has not been heard since Tuesday," Achin district governor Haji Ghalib told AFP.

"It was very demoralising for our troops and it is welcome news that it has been destroyed."

The group, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq, has made alarming inroads in Nangarhar, as the country grapples with a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

In recent months Afghan forces backed by US drones launched a scorched earth offensive to beat back IS in Nangarhar, where the group's rein of terror has displaced thousands of people.

The defence ministry said Monday's strikes were carried out by the Afghan air force with the support of NATO troops.

But some media reports said US forces conducted the strikes.

The NATO mission in Afghanistan said two American "counter-terrorism strikes" were carried out late Monday in Achin, without elaborating.

Mumtaz Sadat, a 28-year-old former Afghan soldier in Nangarhar, said the radio, which aired bombastic anti-government propaganda, sowed fear among local residents.

"It was psychological warfare," he said.

President Ashraf Ghani recently vowed to "bury" the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan, while voicing alarm over their growing reach.

The jihadists have managed to attract disaffected Taliban fighters increasingly lured by the group's signature brutality.

The White House last month gave the US military legal authority to target the group's fighters in Afghanistan, the first such authorisation for military action against the group outside Iraq and Syria

The US State Department has formally designated the group's affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- which calls itself "Khorasan Province" -- as a terrorist organisation.

The name Khorasan refers to a historic region which includes parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighbouring countries.


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