The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) are expected to start offensives in Balkh province and across the country to retake fallen districts and areas, said Bismillah Mohammadi, acting minister of defense on Tuesday during a trip to Balkh. According to Mohammadi, if the Taliban think they can win militarily, they are wrong. “Hopefully we will witness our offensives […]

Russia is ready to provide its ally Tajikistan with any assistance needed amid a worsening conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan, Russia’s TASS news agency cited Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on Wednesday. Reuters reported that Shoigu said the additional supply of Russian arms to Tajikistan had already been arranged and that Russia was continuing to train Tajik military personnel, against […]

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said the United States “really messed it up in Afghanistan” and that Washington should have pushed for a political settlement much earlier. In an interview with PBS News Hour on Tuesday night, Khan sai: “I think the US has really messed it up in Afghanistan.” “And people like me who kept saying that there’s no […]

Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Mohammad Hanif Atmar warned that the activities of the Taliban in his country would aggravate extremism and prepare the ground for notorious terrorist groups such as Daesh in the region. In a meeting with Iranian foreign minister’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian, held in Kabul, the senior Afghan diplomat hailed Iran’s stances in support […]

Afghanistan’s spy agency has arrested four journalists for visiting a Taliban-held border town and accused them of spreading enemy “propaganda,” officials said Tuesday. The four Afghans were detained in Kandahar after returning Monday from Spin Boldak, the border crossing with Pakistan seized by the Taliban earlier this month. Local media said the journalists were investigating government reports that the Taliban […]

When the Taliban captured a strategically important security checkpoint near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan last month, it assigned a Tajik militant to raise the Taliban flag on the site. The militant goes by the alias Mahdi Arsalon and has a group of fighters from Tajikistan under his command, an eyewitness to the flag-raising and other sources told RFE/RL. The Taliban […]

Ex-CIA chief David Petraeus warned that the decision by President Joseph Biden’s administration to withdraw troops from Afghanistan may, in view of the current situation, plunge Afghanistan into a civil war. Speaking at an online conference organized by the Middle East Institute, Petraeus said “we accomplished the mission that took us to Afghanistan in the first place and that actually […]

The head of the Afghan Parliament’s internal security commission on Tuesday accused the Office of National Security Council (ONSC) of incompetence, saying interference by the ONSC in the affairs of the country’s security agencies is complicating the war effort on the battlefield. Khan Agha Rezaee, the head of Parliament’s internal security commission, said that officials from the security institutions do […]

Interpreters and other Afghans who worked for the US government over the last 20 years said they are concerned about “increasing threats” against their lives as the American and coalition troops are leaving the country. Some of them said that despite promises by Western countries, it is not known when they will be out of the country. The United States, […]

Pakistan’s military said it had granted asylum to at least 46 Afghan soldiers who crossed the Durand Line into northwestern Pakistan after their military posts in Afghanistan were overrun by Taliban insurgents. At least 46 Afghan soldiers had sought refuge in Pakistan after losing control of military positions across the border following advances by Taliban insurgents have been returned to […]