The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced a three-week ceasefire, starting from October 2I. The outlawed militant out made the announcement hours after Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government was in talks with TTP. A TTP faction confirmed reconciliation talks with the government were underway. A tribal leader from North Waziristan also verified the negotiations. The Pakistani Taliban are said […]

Former FBI agent Ali Soufan has investigated numerous terrorism cases, inside and outside the United States, including the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa and the 2000 attack on the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole. His role in shedding light on the 9/11 attacks also raised his profile. It is believed that he came very close to preventing the terrorist […]

The one clear advantage of the Taliban sweeping into power last month essentially unopposed was they seemed to spare Afghanistan more unnecessary bloodshed. But just as the Taliban ceased their own fighting, another brutal jihadi group began to unleash mayhem across the country. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the Islamic State’s Afghan offshoot, has launched at least a dozen terrorist attacks since […]

Government shutdown? No. Votes in the House? Not until at least 9 p.m. tonight. And on the Senate side, as Marianne LeVine wrote, “Democrats are desperately trying to make lemonade out of the bag of lemons Joe Manchin handed them today. Senate Democrats spun away Manchin’s utter rejection of their $3.5 trillion spending dreams and embrace of a $1.5 trillion […]

Now that the United States has withdrawn its last remaining troops from Afghanistan, many expect the result will draw in regional powers, each seeking to cultivate proxy forces to work through. Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China all have their own designs for the future of Afghanistan, and each have specific economic, political and security priorities While many of these countries […]

Russia urged Tajikistan and Afghanistan to resolve any dispute in a mutually acceptable manner, saying it had heard reports they were sending troops to their common border, TASS quoted the foreign ministry in Moscow as saying on Thursday (September 30), Reuters reported. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has refused to recognise the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan -appointed cabinet in Kabul and […]

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan, said that Afghanistan wants good ties with all countries. Deputy PM on Thursday met with a number of Ambassadors of foreign countries in Kabul, where he assured the diplomats of having friendly relations with all nations. “If anyone has a problem with us, we are ready to solve it through dialogue. […]

China has sent its first shipment of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since the fall of the previous government. Wang Yu, China’s ambassador to Kabul, said in a tweet on Wednesday that the aid included blankets and warm clothes. “The assistance shows deep love and friendship of Chinese people to Afghan people and reflects China’s role as a major country that […]

Senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August could be traced to a 2020 U.S. agreement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) that promised a complete U.S. troop withdrawal. General Frank McKenzie, the head of the U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that once the U.S. troop […]

US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said this week that many questions remain unanswered on why former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country unexpectedly and why the Afghan military forces dissolved within just a few hours. He also stated that in his opinion, the leadership of the former government made a “grand miscalculation” – that the US would never […]