An American citizen detained by the Taliban says he was wrongfully accused of espionage but that his release can be a case study for U.S. diplomacy with the still-unrecognized Afghan government. Driving the news: Safi Rauf, 27, whose non-profit helped evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghans during the fall of Kabul — including an interpreter who once helped President Biden — […]

A Pakistani court has jailed Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, founder of the militant group blamed by the United States and India for a deadly 2008 attack in India, for 31 years in connection with terrorism financing, court documents showed. Saeed was found guilty of multiple breaches in two cases but it was not immediately clear how much jail time the […]

Basheer was a young Taliban fighter barely out of his teens when the Islamic State group took over his village in eastern Afghanistan, nearly eight years ago. The militants rounded up villagers identified as Taliban and killed them, often beheading them, forcing their families to watch. Basheer escaped and lived in hiding during the following years when IS controlled several […]

But internal divisions and the Taliban get a vote, too. Armed resistance against the Taliban is picking up momentum across Afghanistan, with militias run by former political and military leaders of the collapsed republic recruiting and arming fighters, notably from the ranks of the former republic’s U.S.-trained security forces. Some are trying to drum up international support for forcible regime […]

Following 9/11, when jihadi groups in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region attracted global attention, the Pakistani military-backed jihadi organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) came under international scrutiny. However, the Pakistani government, unable to act against the military-aided jihadi organizations, continued to turn a blind eye to LeT. Lashkar-e-Taiba continued to operate under various names. Although LeT went underground in Pakistan, its leaders began functioning […]

Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the country’s prime minister on Monday at the President House, officially taking over from ousted premier Imran Khan. The oath was administered by the chairman of Pakistan’s Senate, Sadiq Sanjrani, in the absence of President Arif Alvi, a member of Khan’s party, who said he was unwell.

The country’s Central Bank – Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) – said on Tuesday that another shipment of $32 million in cash has arrived in Kabul. “This is the 22nd package of cash aid that arrived in Kabul and was delivered to the International Bank of Afghanistan (AIB) since the start of humanitarian aid [campaign] to Afghanistan,” tweeted DAB. DAB welcomes […]

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Economic Commission, headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, acting first deputy prime minister, instructed security agencies on Monday to work with the country’s power utility company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), to recover money owed to them by government departments and powerful individuals. According to DABS officials, many government departments and powerful individuals have […]

Iran on Tuesday summoned Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Kabul and Herat. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said consular services at diplomatic missions in Afghanistan would cease their operations until full security is assured, Anadolu Agency reported. The ministry urged Afghan authorities to take action against those who attacked its diplomatic missions in […]