Iran
Did Iran shelter Sulaiman Abu Ghaith?
Reports that Obama bin Laden’s co-conspirator and brother-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was sheltered in Iran could lubricate the war drive—but how credible are they?
Tag: Baluchistan
Afghanistan
Pakistan: Shi’ites stage die-in —for real
Shi'ites in Quetta, capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province, spent three nights in the freezing cold with the bodies of their slain loved ones at one of the city's main intersections.
Afghanistan
Next: nuclear Taliban?
A jihadist attack on Pakistan’s Minhas Air Force Base coincides with a US Congressional report on threats to the “security” of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal.
Afghanistan
China launches bid to undermine trans-Afghan pipeline project
A Chinese proposal for a pipeline route across northern Afghanistan for Caspian Basin gas could sabotage the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project.
South Asia
tehr3
A suicide bomber killed at least 130 at a campaign rally in Pakistan's Balochistan province— the deadliest attack in the country since 2014. A local candidate with the Balochistan Awami Party was among the dead. The local franchise of the Islamic State took credit for the attack. Radio Free Europe portrays the BAP as part of the Pakistani military establishment’s plan to undermine Baluch ethno-nationalist groups. Balochistan province is part of the larger region of Baluchistan, homeland of the Baluch people, long divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are movements for Baluch independence in each of these countries, but they have been unable to unite across the nation-state boundaries. The attack may point to an ISIS strategy to disrupt electoral ethno-nationalist initiatives, and co-opt the Baluch struggle across all three borders, wedding it to Sunni extremism. (Map via Atheer)