It's worse then even that. They're also in Libya, and apparently are trying to take control of some of the oil production over there.
Add Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Pakistan to your list. Not open insurgencies but they are slowly building their presence. They start out as a Dawah office - an Islamic missionary office and work from there indoctrinating people and running a classic intelligence gathering operation, gathering as much information about local individuals from leaders, judges, politicians, business people, mosque preachers, police, security personnel etc. They then use that to infiltrate and subjugate the local population.
I get the impression there are different types of host countries, in that some are for fun collection etc, whereas others are like germinating seeds slowly for local expansion and active presence beyond fund network and what goes with it. I suspect Afghanistan would be both, whereas insurgency in Pakistan against the government and society probably wouldn't be something on the cards in their minds.
Posts like this IMO are getting quite close to "flame-bait". You might want to post more facts and less conspiracy-themed topics.
Actually in Pakistan and the Philippines, both areas have or have in the recent past had active insurgencies centered around religious differences. So far though, there has not been a tie between Daesh and the various insurgent groups. As time progresses, that could happen though.
Can you supply link to that particular story please. I think that you will find the real reason that the Luftwaffe aircraft are flying recce missions is because that is a political decision taken by the German government. I would rather have a proper discussion than less than subtle attempts at flaming and misinformation.
Iirc the actual problem is a lack of capability from german side as the Bundeswehr / Luftwaffe doesn't have an operational asset with the capability to deploy guided Bombs. The Eurofighter is not suited for the task and the Tornados can only use LJDAM when upgraded to ASSTA3. But afaik there are only a mere handfull of upgraded Planes and the pilots are still getting training so there is no combat ready asset atm and dropping "dumb bombs" would realy not make a good impression in german media.
I found this link that seems to indicate a readiness problem.
You think their budget problems aren't real? They very much are. And the readiness issue with the Tornadoes appears to be real also. Now I agree that if they wanted to, they certainly could get the assets to conduct air strikes in theater. So in that regard you're correct, but that aside from that, they are having real issues stemming from huge budget and size cuts over the past two decades.
I don't know if this is true, but if it is, that's shocking. Even the Soviets had the capability to use guided bombs in the 80's. For Germany to lack that capability in 2015 is a big surprise. Which is why I'm not sure this is correct...
RAF & Italian Tornados & RAF (at least) Typhoons can drop an assortment of PGMs. Giving German Typhoons (though not their pilots) the capability should be a simple matter of loading 'em with the right software drops - & buying the weapons. The aircraft is perfectly suitable.
The most interesting point to this(IMO) is the apparent close coordination taking place between Russia and Iran to save their mutual friend. This appears to be, as you stated, a serious escalation
Right or wrong, Iran and Russia are not pussy footing around. They seem to be willing to support their client. NATO on the other hand.....? IMHO it might be better for now to let them keep their thug in place. I just don't see anything reassembling a reasonable alternative.
Maybe a third option where they work together and coordinate air traffic and sir strikes. However, this scenario hasn't come to pass yet where any of these options has to be exercised.