The Taliban condemned the United States on Wednesday for what they described as “plain interference” in Afghanistan by offering to resettle Afghan civilians with affiliations to international forces who could be targeted by the insurgent group. Washington on Monday announced the program that offers thousands of Afghan interpreters and translators, along with their families, a chance to relocate as refugees […]

U.S. and Afghan airstrikes hit Taliban targets overnight in southern Helmand province in an effort to dislodge the insurgents after they captured much of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, officials said Wednesday. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch asked both sides to take care to prevent civilian casualties as the fighting rages on. The Taliban have waged a […]

Ankara has criticised a US plan to use third countries such as Turkey to resettle thousands of Afghans who risk being targeted by Taliban insurgents over their US links. “It’s unacceptable to seek a solution to the problem in our country without our country’s consent,” the foreign ministry said in a statement issued late Tuesday. Already home to more than […]

Heavy clashes that began in Herat city eight days ago are still ongoing in the southern parts of the city, local officials said on Wednesday. Afghan security forces operations are occurring in the villages in the southern parts of the city, the security officials said, adding that the “Taliban has been pushed back from the city.” “The operations are ongoing […]

Residents, lawmakers in Parliament and military strategists on Wednesday raised questions about the deadly car bomb attack on the residence of acting Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi on Tuesday night in which at least eight people, including a woman, were killed and 20 more were wounded. Military experts and residents in Kabul said that the complex attack on the house of […]

The former police chief of Kandahar and a member of the High Council of the National Reconciliation (HCNR), Tadin Khan, on Wednesday stated that the Taliban “does not believe in human rights,” saying the group has killed potentially up to 900 people in Kandahar province in the past month and a half. Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying […]

The Taliban have taken over a TV station in Afghanistan’s strategic Helmand province, a source at the TV and radio station told CNN on Monday, marking the latest of a series of advances by the militant group in the country. The Helmand TV station, located in the city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is operated by state-run […]

The shift in Washington is undeniable: the Middle East is no longer a top priority for the United States. The U.S. withdrawal from the broader region is evident in the departure of troops from Afghanistan and reductions in U.S. military commitments to Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, alongside a heightened focus on China and Russia. There are good reasons […]

“I don’t think we have quite come to the idea of a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan,” said T.S. Tirumurti, the Indian UN ambassador. UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — The Security Council is not considering a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan although the situation in the country is a matter of grave concern in light of the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. […]

The former US commander for Afghanistan, David Petraeus, has told The Times that the United States has abandoned its duty to protect the country and that it will leave the nation to a “bloody, brutal civil war.” Mr Petraeus, an architect of the counterinsurgency programmes in both Iraq and Afghanistan, warned that the nation is in danger of a takeover […]