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LONDON (TCA) — Videos have emerged last week of a largely Uzbek group called The Iman Bukhari Jamaat (IBJ) fighting Kurdish forces with mortars, machine guns and crude artillery pieces — another militant group fuelling the fire of war and instability in the nearby regions. Continue reading
OSH, Kyrgyzstan (TCA) — In Afghanistan, the Taliban has regained a foothold and launched the spring offensive codenamed “operation Omari,” after the name of its late leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. This will certainly nullify the peace efforts of the quadrilateral coordination group of China, the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan for reaching a direct dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban. The spring offensive will certainly escalate violence and further destabilize the country. Such development on the ground, with the Afghan government’s role in state management reduced by ever intensive fighting, may turn foreign intervention from a last option into the only option. With Afghanistan falling again into chaos, terrorism may spread to neighboring countries of Central Asia and probably China’s western Xinjiang region. Continue reading
KABUL (TCA) — The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are acting quietly in Afghanistan as the terrorist group plans to use the country for wider expansion, Khaama Press Afghan News Agency reported last week citing Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — The Times of Central Asia presents to its readers Stratfor’s Global Intelligence, a weekly review of the most important events that happened in the world — from Europe to Middle East to Russia to Central Asia to Afghanistan to China and the Americas. Continue reading
LONDON (TCA) — Bomb attack wreckage in Europe, the plight of Syrian war refugees, the fight against Daesh on the ground and Turkey’s ambivalent role in it and Central Asia’s brewing hotbeds – where do they all come together? The question looks obvious, but it seems amidst the political whirlwinds that everybody somehow involved has a different answer to it – often a contradictory and seldom a convincing one. Continue reading
OSH, Kyrgyzstan (TCA) — Russia’s sudden move to draw down its military presence in Syria has put some cards on the table regarding Central Asia’s exposure to Daesh terror in months if not years to come. As long as things stay as they are, the scenario will be limited to occasional threats demanding preventive measures to thwart “incidental” attacks. Ironically, the eventuality of Daesh being swept out of Syrian and Iraqi territory could drive tens of thousands of “fighters”, armed to the teeth and experienced in battle, to Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, capable of carrying out full-scale military campaigns towards the north. This will involve military capabilities that are not available in the states of the region. Continue reading
