Nine Taliban insurgents, including a recently released prisoner, died in an airstrike in Batikot district of eastern Nangarhar province, the governor’s media office said.

US President-elect Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jack Sullivan, said Sunday night the Taliban’s commitment to severing ties with al-Qaeda must not only be proven in words but more importantly in practice.

At least two local policemen were killed early Monday and three others wounded in a roadside IED explosion in Nangarhar province, the governor’s office said.

Ahmad Zia Saraj, head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), told a Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) session on Monday that the Taliban has not cut its ties with “foreign terrorists” nor has the group reduced levels of violence as per the US-Taliban agreement signed in February last year.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad met with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa in Islamabad on Monday to discuss issues around regional security.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted Monday that he return to Doha and the region with expectations that both negotiating sides should make tangible progress in the next round of peace talks.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met with Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday and discussed the Afghan peace process, the military said.

Afghanistan has let off the 10 Chinese nationals caught on 10 December for operating a terror cell in the capital city of Kabul and allowed them to leave the country, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. The 10 members of the module were flown out of the country in a plane arranged by the Chinese government.

Bismillah Adil Aimaq is the fifth journalist killed in Afghanistan in the past two months. An Afghan journalist and human rights activist was shot and killed on Friday by unidentified gunmen in western Afghanistan, the fifth journalist to be killed in the war-ravaged country in the past two months, a provincial spokesman said.

Andarabi said that the Taliban is “conducting targeted attacks” to create attention in the media and affect people’s trust in the government. A new unit of the security forces comprised of Afghan police, Afghan army and the National Directorate of Security has started its operations, a unit that will act when it is informed about any movement by militants, the […]