The findings of TOLOnews show that up to 340 were either killed or wounded in security incidents in Afghanistan since the start of February as a result of magnetic IEDs, roadside bombs and targeted killings.

At least six police force members were killed and two more were wounded in an attack by the Taliban in Zabul province on Monday night, security sources said on Tuesday.

“We believe that the top leadership of Al Qaeda is still under Taliban protection,” said the head of the U.N. panel that tracks terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban have kept up a close relationship with Al Qaeda despite having pledged to stop cooperating with terrorist groups, permitting the militants to conduct training in Afghanistan and deploy fighters alongside […]

While the issue of peace with the Taliban this year has been among the hot topics in the country, there are reports that the warring parties are preparing for war in the spring. Local officials in several provinces have confirmed that the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) are making the fight against the Taliban among their main priorities.

In an open letter to the American public, the Taliban’s leader Mullah Abdullah Abdul Ghani Baradar urged the United States to abide by its commitments to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan in accordance with the US-Taliban peace deal signed between the two sides in Doha last February.

Lawmakers from Kandahar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan’s House of Representatives on Wednesday said that internal rifts between local officials, the poor management of jobs, and the local authorities’ pursuit of personal business has pushed Kandahar to the verge of falling to the Taliban.

Taliban has kept up a close relationship with Al-Qaeda despite having pledged to stop cooperating with the group, according to the head of a UN panel monitoring the insurgency reported by NBC news. “We believe that the top leadership of Al-Qaeda is still under Taliban protection,” said the head of the UNB panel that tracks terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is seeking to increase its operations in Afghanistan, according to the courier chairman Arshad Malik. Currently, the airline provides flights between Kabul and Islamabad; however, in the future, it plans to bring flights to Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Kandahar.

Former Vice President Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum on Wednesday said that there is still a presence of some top Al Qaeda affiliates in northern Afghanistan who have close ties with the Taliban.

Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in an interview with Sputnik said that Moscow prefers that all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan agree on the establishment of an inclusive and transitional coalition government.