30/01/2016 Reporters

Welcome to Reporters. From the newsroom we send our correspondents

to get you the best stories from across the globe. In this week's

programme, the new front in the so-called Islamic state's war of

terror. Justin Rowlatt reports from eastern Afghanistan where the group

is reportedly building a new base for its attacks across the world.

The Pentagon analysis is clear. It says Isis is openly fighting the

Taliban to create a safe haven in the mountains in the east of the

country. Cracking Europe's human trafficking rings, Orla Gearin gets

exclusive access to a Spanish raid on a major people-smuggling network.

This has been a long time in the planning, the investigation into

this criminal network began a year-and-a-half ago.

The so-called Islamic state has claimed it as a new province of its

caliphate, though this is not Syria or Iraq, it's Afghanistan. In recent

months, IS has captured territories straddling the eastern border with

Afghanistan. The Afghan President's called on the international

community for help, but one year after the end of NATO's combat

mission, the Afghan authorities are now struggling to cope with threats

from both the Taliban and IS. Justin Rowlatt's been to eastern

Afghanistan to find out more. Refugees put up rough shelters on a

patch of wasteland outside the Afghan city of Jalalabad.

These aren't victims of the Taliban, but of so-called Islamic state. The

Islamist militants have seized territory in the remote eastern

provinces of Afghanistan, driving the local people from their homes.

The refugees tell stories of horrific violence.

She says IS, Daesh they call it here, attacked her village.

This girl says they took her house, I don't know where my father is, she

tells us. Rahman's brother was one of more

than 100 men IS abducted from the village.

TRANSLATION: At first we had no idea what had happened to him, but three

men were released. They said everyone was being held in a small

room and IS was torturing and killing them. Then we heard about

the video. He recognised his brother in an Isis propaganda video.

The video showed him being led with nine other villagers to where a row

of bombs had been buried. Each man was forced to sit on a bomb. The

bombs were then detonated. IS has struck within an hour of

Kabul. The police say it's only a matter of time before it attacks the

Afghan capital and the threat isn't just here in Afghanistan. The

Pentagon analysis is clear. It says Isis is openly fighting the Taliban

to create a safe haven in the mountains in the east of the

country, potentially a second stronghold from which to launch

attacks across the world. So how serious a threat is IS in

Afghanistan? To answer that, you need to leave Kabul.

An IS commander has agreed to talk to an Afghan colleague.

He meets a rag tag bunch of fighters. This man struggles to

assemble his AK-47. But they talk the talk.

TRANSLATION: You must fight to the bitter end.

These are disaffected former Taliban who want to fight a global Jihad

under the black flag of IS. The commander says they plan more

attacks. TRANSLATION: At the moment, we exist

in three provinces, but we only fight in one. And the others, we are

waiting for orders from our leader, then we will fight.

IS is reckoned to have hundreds, not thousands of fighters, not a huge

force, but enough to bring mayhem and misery.

The Afghan Army has struck back against IS. It says IS has little

support from locals because it's so barbaric. But, the Defence Minister

warns eliminating IS in Afghanistan will require an international

response. The key question is that, from where

they are getting all the funding, and then how they are transferring

the funding and how this movement of goods and money and everything else

is happening. So that is why Afghanistan cannot deal with all

these challenges because it's coming from outside, it's pushed to us from

outside. This isn't the first foreign

terrorist organisation to try and establish a base in the mountains of

eastern Afghanistan. The Tora Bora cave complex is in the province

where IS now operates and Tora Bora is, of course, where Osama Bin Laden

built his stronghold. Human trafficking gangs are now

increasingly using UK airports as a gateway into Europe. That's

according to Spanish police who've given the BBC exclusive access to

raids on one of the biggest people smuggling rings in Europe. The

organised crime group from Nigeria has trafficked hundreds of women

into prostitution. The group is still being investigated and, as

Orla Gearin reports from Barcelona, the BBC was asked to delay

broadcasting this story to ensure the safety of the women giving

evidence in court. Sun rise in Barcelona. The city of

dreams. Standing proud with its rich heritage and architectural jewels.

But after nightfall in the back streets, a different scene. This is

where undercover police have been monitoring a trafficking ring and

its victims, watching every move. We joined the assault teams as they

prepared to strike at locations in Barcelona and several cities nearby.

Around 250 officers taking part in the biggest operation yet against

Nigerian crime bosses who call themselves the Air Lords.

Around 8am, they close in on an apartment block.

In seconds, they're inside, hunting for one of the targets on their

list. They find him still in bed.

The police are inside now questioning suspects. While they

were carrying out the raid here, more than 20 other buildings were

being hit simultaneously. This has been a long time in the planning.

The investigation into this criminal network began a year-and-a-half ago.

The lengthy build-up got results. Police detained the group's main

leaders and gathered evidence of their lucrative slave trade. More

than 80 women were freed. Some with young children. The gang

charges its victims about ?28,000 to get to Spain, then forces them into

prostitution to pay off the debt. Police say those arrested are part

of a sophisticated criminal enterprise that spans the globe with

representatives in cities in the Middle East, Africa, the US and the

EU. The head of the anti-trafficking

unit told us a key figure is based in London, bringing women into the

UK on fake Nigerian passports. He says the gang is looking more and

more to Britain as its gateway to Europe.

One of the main new ways to enter victims is through the aid ports of

Great Britain. It's a different system to trafficking people and it

needs all the forgeries and is more expensive but is more secure and we

have detected this. Here in down town Barcelona, the

Nigerians are believed to have made millions from women working the

streets in the shadows. They are kept in line by threats to their

families back home and by physical abuse from madams who act as

enforcers. We met one young woman who was trafficked from Nigeria with

her three-year-old daughter. She says she and her child were

brutalised by her madam. TRANSLATION: I have scars all over

my body. She hit my face and eyes and beat me until blood came from my

ears. One day when she came for the money, I couldn't pay. She hit me on

the head with a bottle. My child was hit many times. She promised to kill

her. Police hope more women will be able to escape the streets here now

the Nigerian traffickers have been rounded up,

And that's all from Reporters for this week, from me Phillipa Thomas,

goodbye for now.