News Analysis: Afghan militancy likely to escalate in coming months ahead of winter

Militancy and conflicts are likely to escalate in Afghanistan in the coming months as warring sides prepare to expand their grip on territory and consolidate their positions before the onset of the harsh winter in the mountainous country, local observers believe.

According to local political watchers, Taliban militants will do their best to move from the countryside to the cities and attempt to take over some districts by force.

The armed insurgent group, according to local observers, since launching its annual spring offensive on April 24, has demonstrated its power by launching massive offensives and quickly capturing some districts in the region. "Taliban militants have shown their ability in capturing districts but they are unable to maintain and control them," political analyst Khan Mohammad Daneshjo told Xinhua.

The armed outfit, the analyst said, has captured some districts in parts of the country including the Chardara district in northern Kunduz province and the Waygal district in the eastern Nuristan province, although government forces reclaimed the districts within a matter of days.

Taliban militants, according to the observers, are of the view that the Afghan national security forces would lose ground in the absence of the NATO-led forces, whose combat mission in Afghanistan ended in late December 2014.

The end of the NATO-led forces combat mission in Afghanistan late last year, according to Afghan political observers, on the one hand has encouraged the Taliban to increase its activities, and on the other, paved the way for the penetration of the Iraq- Syrian-based extremist group known as the Islamic State (IS), or as Daesh in the war-torn country. "The self-styled Islamic State is more extreme than the Taliban group," Daneshjo who is the editor-in-chief of the weekly Abadi said, adding that the warmongering IS fighters by fighting the Taliban and security forces will create more security challenges in the coming months to destabilize the whole region.

Deash fighters, according to experts on the matter, have already started to challenge both the Taliban and the government forces to strengthen its foothold in Afghanistan and spread its influence around the region. "Daesh fighters with the support of foreign intelligence agencies are getting stronger in Afghanistan and spreading in the country,"lawmaker Kamal Nasir Asooli warned in the lower house of parliament recently.

Militants loyal to Daesh have on several occasions fought with the Taliban in parts of the conflict-hit country, including western Farah, southern Helmand and the eastern Nangarhar provinces over the past couple of months and have reportedly captured vast areas from Taliban militants in the eastern region.

Both Taliban and Daesh, according to those with knowledge of the matter, will continue to fight the government with the objective of gaining more ground before the start of the harsh winter.

Expressing concern over security problems, another lawmaker Nasir Sadat said at a parliament session recently "Daesh as a fighting power is spreading in Afghanistan to create more security problems." Endi