The 17th anniversary of Aaliyah’s death was Saturday, and friends and fans of the legendary singer paid tribute to her life and work. 

Missy Elliott, a frequent collaborator of the late pop star, shared an incredibly touching note and message to honor her close friend. 

Elliott shared a video of herself writing a note that reads: “Aaliyah, we miss you so much but your legacy will live on forever and ever!” 

Elliott continued the tribute in her Instagram and Twitter captions. 

“Aaliyah (Babygirl) I can only imagine how great you would be today winning oscars & creating music that would be in the year 2050 & setting all kind fashion trends all the things you did while you were here with us. But most of all spreading love is what u always were about,” Elliott wrote on social media.

“Your fans have worked diligently in holding u down! & your mom & brother are keeping your Legacy alive!,” she continued. “We miss you & to those that knew you or your music know that you will always be A One in A Million. Rest peacefully angel Babygirl.” 

Aaliyah was just 22 when she was involved in a 2001 plane crash that killed everyone on board. Fans shared memories, heartfelt tweets, and touching sentiments about Aaliyah. 

Rest in peace to a legend. 

Harare, Zimbabwe – A loud and familiar chant rang out across the tightly-packed arena as Emmerson Mnangagwa took to the stage to be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president.

“ED Pfee! ED Pfee!” the crowds roared in unison, echoing the ruling ZANU-PF party’s election campaign slogan for Mnangagwa to “get in there” in the hope that Zimbabwe’s second president will deliver a new era of prosperity and peace.

Addressing the thousands of supporters gathered on Sunday at Harare’s National Sports Stadium, Mnangagwa urged Zimbabweans to unite across political, tribal and racial divides.

“We are all Zimbabweans; what unites us is greater than what could ever divide us,” said the 75-year-old, a former vice president and intelligence chief nicknamed “Ngwena”, Shona for crocodile.

Mnangagwa’s inauguration was delayed by two weeks after the main opposition coalition filed a legal challenge to reject the result of the July 30 presidential election, which it said was marred by “mammoth theft and fraud”.

Electoral officials had declared Mnangagwa the winner with 50.8 percent, ahead of MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who got 44.3 percent.

But on Friday, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the opposition’s bid and upheld the ZANU-PF leader’s victory – much to Chamisa’s dismay.

“President Mnangagwa is disputed as leader,” the 40-year-old opposition leader said in a statement. “I have a legitimate claim that I am supposed to be leading the people of Zimbabwe.”

‘Father of all of us’

At the inaugural ceremony attended by other opposition leaders and several regional heads of state, Mnangagwa reached out to the opposition and urged the nation to look forward and work towards helping the country’s shuttered economy grow.

“The vision of a new and prosperous Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe we all want is a shared one and transcends political party lines. As a president, I pledge to act fairly and impartially, without fear or favour as president of all Zimbabweans,” he said.

Echoing Mnangagwa’s comments, Godfrey Gotora, a 26-year-old who works as a driver in Harare, said he was confident Mnangagwa could transcend the political rift and avoid repeating the mistakes of Robert Mugabe, who led ZANU-PF and the country for 37 years. 

“Mnangagwa used to work with Mugabe and he could see all the mistakes that Mugabe made,” he told Al Jazeera.

“ED [Mnangagwa] will correct all those things in the new dispensation. Even those in the opposition who think he will not make a good leader, they will see he has the ability to unite all of us.

“Mnangagwa is the father of all of us as people of this land so we must put our trust in him,” he said.

Ever since it declared independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has been ruled by ZANU-PF. But following the rise of the MDC movement in the 2000s, the country has experienced disputed elections which resulted in violent clashes and court challenges from the opposition.

Although Chamisa accuses the judiciary of being under ZANU-PF’s control, Mnangagwa has promised a new dawn for Zimbabwe with impartial state institutions.

However, since Mugabe’s fall in November 2017 in the wake of a military intervention, concerns remain over the power and influence of the country’s armed forces.

On August 1, security forces crushed opposition protests in Harare, killing at least six people and wounding scores more during demonstrations against delays in the announcement of election results.

According to Dewa Mavhinga, the Southern Africa director for Human Rights Watch, the post-election crackdown on the opposition by the security forces “marked a turning point” in Zimbabwe’s democracy.

“The military is the power behind Mnangagwa’s throne, and could be an obstacle to the democratisation project, notwithstanding Mnangagwa’s declared desire for a new dispensation,” he told Al Jazeera.

Mending ties or burning bridges again?

Last month’s election had been trumpeted as a major step towards mending Zimbabwe’s diplomatic relations with Western countries and ending decades of isolation, as well as securing much-needed international funding to revive the economy.

Election observers from the European Union and the United States were allowed to monitor a vote in Zimbabwe for the first time in 16 years.

In the lead-up to the polls, the opposition had repeatedly complained over access to the voters’ roll and demanded more transparency in the printing and storage of ballot papers.

After the vote, European Union observers said that Mnangagwa had benefitted from an “un-level playing field” and some voter intimidation, but international monitors largely praised the conduct of the election.

But Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa, told Al Jazeera concerns over the election and subsequent tensions have damaged hopes of restoring ties with the West.

“If international donors and world powers were somehow fooled by an orderly election day, and liable to lend support to the government thereafter, those illusions were effectively shattered when the military opened fire on protesters,” said Smith.

Mnangagwa has expressed regret for the loss of life on August 1 and said he will soon announce an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the violence.

The president has repeatedly pledged to lead Zimbabwe to a more democratic era, but Smith told Al Jazeera Mnangagwa’s past reputation as Mugabe’s right-hand man – accused by critics of being the chief architect behind the political violence during the 2008 elections as ZANU-PF’s chief election agent – may stand in the way.

Mnangagwa has also faced allegations of playing a role in ethnic massacres that killed at least 20,000 people in the 1980s, when he was a minister of state security. Mnangagwa has denied any role in the killings.

Critics say his brushing off of the past raises doubts over his ability to ensure accountability and justice – especially since much of Mugabe’s old guard remains in positions of power.

“The Mnangagwa government is nothing new. It [will be] a cabinet stocked with Mugabe-era hardliners, and the absolute worst of the worst who cannily destroyed Zimbabwe over the past four decades,” said Smith.

But for many Zimbabweans, fatigued after weeks of tensions and uncertainty, the hope is that Mnangagwa’s inauguration will allow the country to put political differences behind and focus on fixing the economy, which has seen worsening cash shortages and rising prices of basic commodities.

“What we want now is to eat,” said Romeo Nemarmbwa, a 34-year-old entrepreneur.

“It doesn’t matter whether you like the president or not – we want to eat. I am positive that Mnangagwa can do it, he will deliver us from our suffering,” he told Al Jazeera.

In his inaugural speech, Mnangagwa reiterated his mantra that “Zimbabwe is open for business”, pledging to cut down on government expenditure and implement policies to attract domestic and foreign capital.

He also pledged to introduce a raft of fiscal measures to address Zimbabwe’s external debt arrears and liquidity crisis.

“Through the engagement and re-engagement policy we are opening a new chapter in our relations with the world, underpinned by mutual respect, shared principles and common values,” he said.

“Measures will be taken to correct the fiscal imbalances that threaten to undermine the viability of the financial sector as reflected through the spiralling cash shortages and the distortions plaguing the foreign currency market,” he said.

Faced with urgent, complex economic and political problems, over the next five years, Mnangagwa is likely to have a challenging path to navigate in his bid to lead Zimbabwe into a new era.

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Dedryck Boyata responded to a fans’ banner claiming he was “not fit to wear the jersey” by scoring the only goal as Celtic beat Hamilton.

The Belgian, the subject of a rejected bid from Fulham, ruled himself out of recent games, claiming he was injured.

Manager Brendan Rodgers refuted the defender’s claims, and said he was “sad” at the situation.

But Boyata’s close range finish earned Celtic the points despite a lacklustre performance from the champions.

The victory moves Celtic into second in the Premiership before next Sunday’s Old Firm derby with Rangers.

Before that, Rodgers’s side host FK Suduva of Lithuania at Celtic Park on Thursday in the second leg of the Europa League play-off round, having drawn the first leg 1-1.

Hamilton, meanwhile, remain in the bottom half of the table, but will take consolation from the concession of just one goal in two away games after a home humbling by Hearts.

Celtic nowhere near their best

Just before kick-off, the earnest section of the Celtic support hoisted an anti-Boyata banner that declared him unfit to wear the jersey. It’s just as well as he did.

The Belgian’s behaviour has caused understandable anger around the club in recent weeks, but his tap-in finish just after the hour didn’t half lift the mood inside the stadium. Leigh Griffiths’ corner was flicked on by Moussa Dembele and then headed back across goal by Mikael Lustig for Boyata to poke home.

That was the breakthrough that Celtic had toiled to find. Finally they had broken Hamilton’s resistance, not to mind conquered their own lack of accuracy.

They had had moments – plenty of them. Hamilton had survived scares from James Forrest, Callum McGregor and a number of close-run things from Dembele.

The striker – along with Griffiths – got more game-time into his legs. No goals, but the mere fact that he was out there and getting chances will have encouraged his manager.

Celtic were far from free-flowing or impressive, though. Forrest and Kieran Tierney did their best to fire them up, but there was a lack of wit and ruthlessness in trying to cut through a resolute Hamilton. For all their mountains of possession, they were nowhere near their best. They were on different wavelengths too often.

Hamilton manager Martin Canning had cause to be frustrated at the simplicity of the goal, but his side’s organisation was good and their spirit was obvious. On the back of their fine win against Motherwell a week ago, this was a day that should give them heart.

Reluctant Celt makes valuable contribution – analysis

Boyata, the apparently reluctant Celt, managed to get himself in the right place at the right time to make sure an underwhelming performance still managed to bring three valuable points. After the full-time whistle, the entire Celtic team – including the manager – did a mini-tour of the pitch and wandered down to the end where the banner had been raised. It was conspicuous by its absence.

Where now for Boyata? Heaven knows. Celtic have been linked with the 20-year-old Le Havre centre-back, Harold Moukoudi, but are they really going to let the Belgian go and replace him with another rookie? He might not be the flavour of the month for some Celtic fans, but Rodgers still sees him as his top centre-back. “We’re better when he’s in the team,” he said, pre-match.

Celtic move onwards into a huge week. A Europa League game on Thursday and then Rangers on Sunday. They got through this one. In seven days, when Steven Gerrard brings his team to Parkhead, the occasion promises to be a little more thunderous.

A gunman opened fire at a Madden video game tournament along Jacksonville’s riverwalk Sunday, and Florida authorities reported multiple fatalities.

“Mass shooting at the Jacksonville Landing. Stay far away from the area. The area is not safe at this time. STAY AWAY,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet.

“Multiple fatalities at the scene, many transported,” the sheriff’s office later tweeted. “We can’t stress enough to stay away. Many blocks away.”

One suspect is dead at the scene and it was unknown if there was a second shooter, the sheriff’s office said. A search was underway.

“We are finding many people hiding in locked areas at The Landing,” the sheriff’s office said. “We ask you to stay calm, stay where you are hiding. SWAT is doing a methodical search inside The Landing. We will get to you. Please don’t come running out.”

A live feed from the tournament was underway when the shooting took place, and the audio feed is interrupted by the sound of several gunshots.

Complexity Gaming, a professional gaming team that had a player participating in the event at the GLHF Game Bar, said on Twitter that “there appears to have been a shooting at the event.”

Complexity said that participant Grini Gjoka was grazed in the hand but was “away from the scene and safe.”

Gjoka tweeted that he was hit in the thumb when the tournament “got shot up.”

“Worst day of my life,” Gjoka said. “I will never take anything for granted ever again. Life can be cut short in a second.”

The Jacksonville Landing is an entertainment complex along the St. Johns River. The area includes waterfront restaurants and an indoor shopping mall. The gaming bar bills itself online as “Jacksonville’s home for gamers and nerds alike.” 

The shooting took place less than two days after a gunfire at a high school football game a few miles away left one person dead and two wounded.

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Image: VCG via Getty Images

There are a few ways to properly celebrate National Dog Day. Some people choose to commemorate the important holiday by sharing photos of their dogs online, while others celebrate by hanging out with their pups IRL. 

But possibly the best way to celebrate? Scrolling through Twitter and laughing and/or crying over the best tweets about the precious doggos that have captured our hearts this year. Here are our favorites. 

1. What a mood

2. Ikea + dogs = match made in heaven

3. What YouTube was made for, to be honest

4. Possibly one of the greatest things to happen on Twitter

5. A dog’s best friend

6. Try not to cry reading this one

7. “Aye, why not?” 

8. Take notes

9. The superzoom function was made for this

10. Back to school ready!

May every day going forward be as good as National Dog Day. 

A mass shooting at a video game tournament has led to “multiple fatalities” in the US state of Florida, according to police.

The shooting took place on Sunday at a waterfront dining, entertainment and shopping site in downtown Jacksonville, according to local media. Police warned residents to stay away from the area.

Citing police sources, reports said four people were killed and about 10 wounded.

“One suspect is dead at the scene, unknown at this time if we have a second suspect. Searches are being conducted,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter. 

The video game tournament was being streamed online from the restaurant. Players can be seen reacting to the gunfire and cries can be heard before the footage cuts off.

Local outlet News4Jax said several ambulances, as well as firefighters and police officers, were on the scene, and roads were being blocked off in the downtown area. 

Multiple fatalities at the scene, many transported. #TheLandingMassShooting https://t.co/qBJvkaO7xT

— Jax Sheriff’s Office (@JSOPIO) August 26, 2018

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel beat title rival Lewis Hamilton in the Belgian Grand Prix to cut his lead to 17 points.

Vettel passed Hamilton on the first lap just in time before a safety car was deployed following a multi-car crash at the first corner, and dominated thereafter.

Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Charles Leclerc were uninjured after the German rammed Alonso’s McLaren and launched it over Leclerc’s Sauber.

Hulkenberg received a 10-place grid penalty at the next race for the incident.

Alonso related it to the first-lap crash at this race in 2012, in which Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was given a race ban for causing a similar incident, which also took out the Spaniard.

“Again a very big-time missing braking point,” Alonso said. “That time Romain had a race ban.

“It is tough to understand how you can miss (the braking) so much. It is not a couple of metres. You arrive at a speed that it is impossible to negotiate the corner. So, sad for that but happy that we are all fine.”

The big difference between the 2012 and 2018 crashes was that Grosjean was a repeat offender in terms of first-lap crashes that year, while Hulkenberg is one of the sport’s most consistent performers.

The crash also may have been the first time a grand prix driver was saved from injury by the new halo head-protection device, introduced this year. Television replays showed Alonso’s car bounced off the halo on Leclerc’s car and Alonso said: “I flew over his car and the halo was a good thing to have today. I think for him it helped, looking at the replay. We don’t need to prove it is a good thing to have.”

That was not the only incident at the first corner. Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull hit Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, forcing both into eventual retirement despite initially rejoining.

And Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, starting from the back because of engine penalties, damaged his front wing and needed to pit for a new one.

Hulkenberg said: “I misjudged my braking point a little bit and there was no real time to recover it.

“We are due to see the stewards at 17:30 (CET). Of course I can understand that he is upset and frustrated. So am I, and he has every right to be, but it is racing and these things unfortunately do happen.”

The battle at the front

It seemed inevitable that a safety car would be deployed with so many damaged cars and debris on the track but race director Charlie Whiting delayed his call to deploy it for a crucial amount of time.

Hamilton and Vettel were well clear of the chaos behind and the German tracked the Mercedes off the start, settled into its slipstream up the long Kemmel straight and swapped into the lead.

Vettel briefly had to fight off an attack from Force India’s Esteban Ocon, who started third and tried a look down the inside into the Les Combes chicane.

Vettel, Hamilton, Ocon and the second Force India of Sergio Perez were briefly all side by side down the back straight but the Frenchman had to back out of his attempt and that allowed Perez to slip ahead of him into third.

Vettel’s controlled response

Once into the lead, it was clear Vettel had a small but decisive pace advantage over Hamilton and he edged clear, building a 3.9-second lead by lap 14, before the Mercedes began to close in slightly as the pit stops approached.

Hamilton got his deficit down to 3.2secs on lap 20 and pitted on the next lap, but Vettel followed him in the next time around and was able to rejoin in front.

Hamilton was not far behind but not close enough and his hopes were also marginally affected by catching Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which was running second, just as he wanted to be attacking Vettel.

Hamilton passed Verstappen with ease up the Kemmel straight and was in any case too far back to have made an attempt on Vettel’s lead.

He ended the critical lap 1.5secs behind, after which the race settled into a familiar pattern, with Vettel building a comfortable lead of about five seconds or so and holding it there, and Verstappen equally safe in third nearly 30 seconds behind.

Bottas battles back

After the initial drama at the start, the race was unexciting, the only significant action provided by Bottas’ fight back through the field.

The Finn got up to fourth before his stop on lap 32, which dropped him to sixth.

He soon passed Ocon, and then Perez on lap 40 to take fourth.

Fifth and sixth was a dream start for the sort-of new Force India team, which was reduced from administration over the summer break and is now owned by a consortium of businessmen led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, father of Williams driver Lance.

Classified as a new team, with the old Force India disqualified from the championship, they started with no points but have already leapt ahead of Williams into ninth, just a point behind Sauber.

Driver of the day

What’s next?

The Italian Grand Prix at high-speed Monza next weekend, where judging from Hamilton’s downbeat demeanour after the race on Sunday he believes Ferrari’s straight-line speed will make them very difficult to beat again.

What they said

Sebastian Vettel: “I had a great start. I’m not sure Lewis saw me as he pushed me to the left in the first lap, but after last year I ended up short, and this year it was the other way around. This year was better.

“As soon as I was ahead I relaxed. I had a good restart after the safety car, and after that it was a very smooth race. We turned everything around and then controlled the race.”

Lewis Hamilton: “Congrats to Seb. I did everything I could and we ultimately did well, but he drove past me like I was not there. We have to keep pushing to see what we can do.

“They have got a few trick things going on in the car. I did what I could – we did what we could – so we have to keep working.”

Max Verstappen: “It was good. After Turn One I just had to be focused on how to get past those guys.

“Compared to a Force India, how difficult it is to get past those guys on the straight is disappointing and we tried to make the best of it.

“It’s great to see how many people come to the grand prix. It gave me goosebumps.”

On team-mate Daniel Ricciardo leaving: “We always had equal material and still have, and we try to have the best result as a team. Everyone knows Daniel is leaving but we want two cars in the points.”

Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
Published 12:04 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2018 | Updated 2:08 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2018

Neil Simon, the legendary comedic playwright whose beloved hits include “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park” and “Sweet Charity,” has died at 91.

The writer died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where he was surrounded by his family, said his longtime friend Bill Evans, director of media relations for the Shubert Organization.

Neil Simon’s place in the dramatic canon never rivaled that of Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee or August Wilson, to name a few 20th-century icons who died before him. But Simon proved more consistently popular with mass audiences by channeling the neuroses of everyday people into one clever, accessible comedy after the next.

He was, for a long stretch, the American people’s playwright.

Simon’s Broadway productions included cherished plays such as “The Sunshine Boys” and the musicals “They’re Playing Our Song” and “Promises, Promises.”

In the 1980s, Simon enjoyed a career revival, and increased critical acclaim, with his semi-autobiographical “Eugene trilogy,” consisting of three plays focusing on a young man who grew up in New York City: “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound.” “Lost in Yonkers,” another coming-of-age tale, earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1991.

As word spread of his death, the theater world collectively mourned. Josh Gad called Simon “one of the primary influences on my life and career.” Harvey Fierstein hailed him as a wordsmith who “could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world’s problems.”

Many of Simon’s works were adapted for the screen as feature films (he was a four-time Oscar nominee) and TV movies. He also wrote original screenplays, including the smash hit “The Goodbye Girl,” which earned him a Golden Globe Award in 1978. He collected the first of four Tony Awards (including a special one for contributions to the theater, in 1975) in 1965, for “Odd Couple,” which also became a hit TV series in the 1970s.

More: Mark Hamill, Josh Gad and other celebrities pay tribute to Neil Simon

Related: ‘Odd Couple’ reunites casts of TV classics for Garry Marshall tribute

More: See Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in first footage from ‘Our Souls at Night’

Television had actually been Simon’s launching pad. In the 1950s, he worked for “The Phil Silvers Show” and for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” where his colleagues included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Woody Allen, three other Jewish, New York-bred writers who would weave their sensibilities indelibly into the wider fabric of American humor.

His success in theater and film found Simon collaborating with, and nurturing, some of the greatest comedic actors of the past century. “The Odd Couple” alone was a vehicle for performers ranging from Art Carney and Walter Matthau, who respectively introduced the fussy Felix Ungar and slovenly Oscar Madison on Broadway, to Jack Lemmon, who joined Matthau for the 1968 film version, to Matthew Broderick (who got a huge boost early in his career with Simon’s plays “Brighton” and “Biloxi”) and Nathan Lane, stars of the most recent Broadway revival, in 2005.

As for the notion that Simon was a relative lightweight creatively, the writer had an estimable defender in the venerated theater critic and playwright Walter Kerr, who observed that “Americans have always tended to underrate writers who make them laugh” and that Simon’s “best comedies contain not only a host of funny lines but numerous memorable characters and an incisively dramatized set of beliefs that are not without merit. Simon is, in fact, one of the finest writers of comedy in American literary history.”

Awarding Simon the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995, President Bill Clinton added that, more simply, Simon “challenges us and himself never to take ourselves too seriously.”

That was a philosophy Simon endorsed in life as well. “I love living,” he once said. “I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they’ve come up with so far.” 

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Image: Getty Images For Parkwood Entertainment

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are known for their surprises, but they themselves got one of their own during the Atlanta stop of the On The Run II tour on Saturday. 

As the show was finishing up, the two walked off the stage hand-in-hand right as a member of the audience hopped on stage and attempted to follow them out. 

In footage caught by fans in the audience, you can see a man in a white shirt casually climbing the stairs and running past dancers and towards the couple. 

The temporarily stunned dancers raced after him and appeared to stop him before actually reaching The Carters. Other angles, captured from the audience, show the altercation between dancers, security, and the stranger. 

The BeyHive reacted to the incident in classic BeyHive fashion. 

But the show must go on, of course. Beyoncé’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, took to Instagram to reassure fans following the stunt. “Thank you to all the fans for your concern,” she wrote. “They are fine and looking forward to the show tomorrow.”

You can see the remaining On The Run II tour dates here. 

The leader of ISIL in Afghanistan was killed in air strikes in eastern Nangarhar province, the fourth head of the armed group to die since it emerged in the country in recent years.

Abu Saad Erhabi and 10 other Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) members died in a joint operation with coalition forces on Saturday night, the National Directorate of Security said in a statement on Sunday.

“The emir of Daesh in Afghanistan – along with 10 others – was killed,” it said, using the armed group’s Arabic acronym.

The air attacks on a village in Khugyani district, near the border with Pakistan, also destroyed a large number of weapons, explosives, and ammunition, the agency said.

The provincial governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani confirmed Erhabi’s death.

US forces in Afghanistan said they conducted an air raid in the location described by Afghan officials, which “targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organisation”.

Fourth leader killed

Erhabi was the fourth ISIL leader killed in Afghanistan since the group emerged there in early 2015. Erhabi succeeded Abu Sayed who was killed in a US drone attack in early July.

ISIL has a relatively small but potent presence in Afghanistan, mainly in Nangarhar – the birthplace of the group’s Afghan branch – but more recently in the northern province of Jowzjan where it is fighting for control of smuggling routes into neighbouring Turkmenistan.

Hours before Saturday’s air raids, the group claimed a deadly suicide attack that appeared to target a sit-in protest outside an election commission office in the city of Jalalabad. Two people were killed.

The bombings followed a number of attacks claimed by ISIL in recent weeks, including assaults on several government installations in Kabul and a bombing at a school in a Shia area of the capital that killed at least 37 people.

The group, however, has suffered repeated setbacks amid a bloody turf war with the much larger Taliban. Estimates of ISIL’s numbers in the country run as high as 2,000.

More than 150 ISIL fighters surrendered to Afghan forces in Jowzjan on August 1, a move troops and the Taliban hailed as the end of the group’s foothold in the north of the country.

ISIL in Afghanistan is also known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan.