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Andarabi claims new Daesh leader is a Haqqani member
Masoud Andarabi, the acting minister of interior, said Monday night that Shahab al-Muhajir, the newly appointed leader of Daesh in Afghanistan, was in fact a member of the Haqqani Network.
Commenting on Twitter, Andarabi said: “Haqqani and the Taliban carry out their terrorism on a daily basis across Afg and when their terrorist activities does not suit them politically they rebrand it under ISKP (Daesh Afghanistan).”
Shahab Almahajir, the newly appointed leader of Islamic State of Khorasan Province-ISKP is a Haqani member. Haqani & the Taliban carry out their terrorism on a daily basis across Afg & when their terrorist activities does not suit them politically they rebrand it under ISKP.
— Masoud Andarabi (@andarabi) August 3, 2020
Andarabi’s tweet came just hours after security forces brought an end to the Jalalabad prison siege in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The attack started on Sunday night shortly after 6.30 pm and carried on throughout the night and most of Monday.
Soon after militants detonated a car bomb at the gates of the prison, and gunmen stormed the facility, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sunday was also the final day of a three-day Eid ceasefire that had been called by both the Taliban and the Afghan government.
However, the prison siege resulted in the death of at least 30 people, including civilians, security force members, and prisoners.
In addition, prisoners escaped during the chaos but security forces said they rounded hundreds of them up.
The attack came just a day after the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate (NDS), killed a senior Daesh group commander near Jalalabad.
A statement late Saturday by the National Directorate of Security said the slain militant was Assadullah Orakzai, an intelligence leader for the IS affiliate (Daesh) in Afghanistan. The statement said he was killed near Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. IS has its headquarters in the province.
Orakzai was suspected of being involved in several deadly attacks against both military and civilian targets in Afghanistan.
Nooruddin Azizi, Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, met with Yu Xiaoyong, China’s Special Representative in Kabul, to discuss expanding trade and investment opportunities between the two countries, the ministry said.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued on Wednesday, Azizi said Afghanistan offers a secure and favorable environment for investment and invited Chinese investors to explore opportunities across various sectors of the Afghan economy.
He also stressed the need to increase and facilitate Afghan exports to China, particularly products such as cotton, pomegranates, pine nuts, and precious and semi-precious stones. Azizi called for improved customs, transit, and transportation facilities to strengthen trade between the two countries.
Yu, for his part, noted the growing interest of Chinese traders and investors in the Afghan market, describing Afghanistan as a country with significant untapped investment potential within China’s broader economic strategy.
Both sides emphasized the importance of closer cooperation between relevant institutions in the two countries to facilitate trade and promote investment, according to the statement.
Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has officially ratified the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
The agreement was first signed on 10 June 2025 during the Tashkent International Investment Forum by Uzbekistan’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Laziz Kudratov and Afghanistan’s Minister Nuriddin Azizi, Uzbekistan Daily reported.
The PTA eliminates tariffs on 14 categories of goods, simplifies the issuance of phytosanitary permits for Afghan agricultural products, and introduces additional support measures for Uzbek exporters.
In February 2026, Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev held online talks with Azizi to accelerate the agreement’s entry into force, advance investment projects, and promote industrial cooperation. A new joint business forum is planned to take place in Kabul after the conclusion of Ramadan.
The agreement is expected to strengthen bilateral trade, boost economic ties, and create new opportunities for Afghan businesses and exporters.
A senior official from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says many Afghans living in Iran are facing increasingly difficult decisions as insecurity and economic hardship deepen across the region.
Arafat Jamal, the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera that Afghans in Iran are caught between two difficult realities: remaining in Iran amid growing instability and economic strain, or returning to Afghanistan where many also face uncertainty and insecurity.
“At the moment, it seems to be more of a preemptive move,” Jamal said, referring to Afghans leaving Iran. “People are describing bombs falling around them. There is a great deal of fear, but they are also describing a dysfunctional economy.”
According to Jamal, approximately 110,000 Afghans have returned from Iran so far this year, many driven by fear of escalating conflict and deteriorating living conditions.
“For these people there are no good choices,” he said. “They are fleeing one war only to come to another,” Jamal added, referring to ongoing cross-border tensions and military activity involving Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The UNHCR official noted that the current wave of returns follows an already unprecedented movement of people.
In 2025, around 2.8 million Afghans returned to Afghanistan, making it the largest refugee return movement in the world that year.
Humanitarian agencies warn that Afghanistan is struggling to absorb such large numbers of returnees, particularly as the country faces widespread poverty, limited employment opportunities, and reduced international aid.
Jamal also cautioned that the United Nations currently lacks sufficient funding to maintain long-term assistance programs for returning refugees.
Without additional financial support, aid organizations may struggle to provide housing, food, and basic services to the growing number of returnees arriving in Afghanistan.
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