US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday met with US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, and discussed the Afghan peace process.

At least 16 pro-government forces were killed in clashes with the Taliban militants in Kunduz province on Thursday night, sources confirmed. Mohammad Yousuf Ayubi, head of the provincial council told Ariana News that the clashes started after insurgents attacked a base of the public uprising forces and the NDS in the Khanabad district of the province.

Fierce clashes between security forces and the Taliban have been reported in 25 provinces in the past 24 yours, officials confirmed Friday evening. In Kunduz, Faryab, Helmand and Badghis provinces, more than 30 security forces were killed and several others were injured in this period.

While peace talks present an opportunity for the US to extricate itself from a decades-old conflict in Afghanistan, they will also pose one of the greatest foreign policy challenges for the Biden administration, the International Crisis Group reported in its latest briefing this week.

The Biden administration has been asked to keep US troops in Afghanistan beyond the May 1 deadline and avoid abandoning intra-Afghan peace negotiations. The need for a delay in withdrawing American forces from the country was underlined in a congressionally-mandated report that was released on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The International Union for Muslim Scholars on Wednesday called for all Muslim scholars to work to end the conflict in Afghanistan and ensure the safety of its people. In a statement issued by the IUMS, they said they call “on all scholars and intellectuals to strive for an end to the bloodshed, and to achieve stability and safety for the […]

Noorullah Nazari, Head of NDS for Ghoryan district in western Herat province, was killed in a skirmish with Taliban militants, local officials confirmed.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan is a decision that should be mutual but one that carries risks. Speaking at a joint news conference with Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Stoltenberg said: “If we decide to leave, we risk to jeopardize the peace process, we risk to lose the gains that […]

A bipartisan report to US Congress stated that Washington should not abandon Afghanistan and instead extend the May 1 deadline for withdrawing the remaining troops.

The report also said that the violence continued in Afghanistan despite renewed calls from US officials. The Taliban and Deash have increased targeted assassinations outside of Kabul and that the Taliban attacks in the Afghan capital are on the rise, with increasing targeted killings of government officials, civil society leaders and journalists, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction […]