The claim of responsibility from the Islamic State for the devastating suicide bombing at Kabul airport came as little surprise to analysts. The organisation’s affiliate in Afghanistan known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), had been pointed to as the prime suspect immediately after the blast.

The IS official Amaq news agency said on its Telegram channel that a member called Abdul Rahman al-Logari carried out “the martyrdom operation near Kabul Airport”. The name suggests the killer of at least 12 US servicemen and more than 60 civilians was Afghan.

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Anti-Taliban forces fire a mounted heavy machine gun into a deep valley from the top of a rocky mountain that has defied foreign invaders for decades.

They are members of the National Resistance Front (NRF), which has emerged as the most visible Afghan opposition organization since the Taliban took control of Kabul ten days ago.

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Several troops from the Syrian regime’s Fourth Division were killed and wounded on Monday as they tried to advance on the besieged Daraa Al-Balad area of Daraa city in southern Syria.

Abu Al-Baraa Al-Hourani, a member of the Free People of Houran media activist group, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that “violent clashes with automatic weapons broke out at midday on Monday, between young men from Daraa on the one hand and Fourth Division militias supported by Iran on the other”.

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The Taliban says it has sent “hundreds of fighters” to the Panjshir Valley, northeast of Kabul. The valley is not in the hands of radical Islamists and provides a bulwark for groups who want to fight the Taliban. A Taliban spokesman said the troops would be sent “because local leaders refused to hand over the area peacefully”.

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The Public’s Resistance Forces under Khair Muhammad Andarabi have claimed that they captured Pol-e-Hesar, Deh Salah and Banu districts in Afghanistan’s Baghlan from the Taliban on Friday, as per local reporters.

A number of Taliban fighters were reportedly injured and killed, according to Afghan news agency Asvaka.

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