At least five civilians were killed on Thursday morning in Kandahar province in an IED explosion, police said. Provincial police spokesman Jamal Nasir Barakzai said that the incident occurred at 10:15 am in Salahen area of Panjwai district when a car hit a roadside mine. According to Barakzai women and children are among the dead. No further details were provided […]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday that Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa told him this week that the revival of an Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan was not in Pakistan’s interest. “Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff has made it clear that reviving the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan is not in Pakistan’s national interest,” Ghani said. After […]

Defense officials say they will maintain some US troop presence near Afghanistan for counterterrorism operations into the future, but would not say where that force would be based or whether it could be in place before all American troops leave the war-torn country. According to Military Times, David Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs said during a […]

While both the Taliban and the Afghan security forces observed the first day of the three-day Eid ceasefire Thursday, four explosions were reported across the country, claiming the lives of at least nine people and wounding 18 others. No group has not yet claimed responsibility for any of the explosions. Thursday also saw people around the country calling for an […]

Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former vice president, and Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh province, on Thursday stressed the need to reduce violence and end the killing of people in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s third marshal, Dostum, said during Eid-ul-Fitr prayers in Sheberghan, the capital of Jawzjan province, the Taliban need to consider a continuous ceasefire to achieve peace. […]

In 1989, the Soviet Union withdrew the Red Army from Afghanistan across the Friendship Bridge back into the Soviet Union. That was not the end of Moscow’s engagement with Kabul, however. While President George H.W. Bush spoke of a ‘peace dividend’ and Congress scrambled to shift money to domestic projects, the Soviet Union also had a dividend: The Kremlin directed […]

The seizure of Nerkh district comes amid intensifying violence following an announcement by the group of a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid, starting this week. Afghan security forces have mounted an operation to recapture a Taliban-held district outside the capital Kabul just before the start of a three-day ceasefire at midnight, according to a […]

Pakistan ruled out Tuesday the possibility of again providing its military bases to the United States for future counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, as US troops prepare to completely leave the country by September 11, VOA reported. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the remarks to reporters in Islamabad, explaining that his government has adopted a policy that allows it […]

Following reports about the fall of Nerkh district of Maidan Wardak province to the Taliban, Afghan security officials said that the security forces made a “tactical retreat” from the district. Maidan Wardak’s governor said that the security forces retreated from the district as part of a “conspiracy,” without further elaborating. He said the district is currently under Taliban control. However, […]

A three-day nationwide ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban is expected to begin on midnight Wednesday. The Taliban’s spokesman told TOLOnews that the ceasefire is not to continue after the three days of Eid-ul-Fitr, which begins on Thursday. However, the public has urged the Taliban to agree to a permanent ceasefire and stop their violence against the Afghan […]