KABUL — Taliban insurgents repeatedly ambushed the convoy of Vice President Abdurrashid Dostum and killed two of his guards, Afghan officials said Sunday, but the powerful former warlord escaped injury. Dostum, a military general and member of Afghanistan’s Uzbek minority, was traveling in the north of the country when his heavily armed entourage came under fire. “By the grace of […]

HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — Too poor to even buy pens and notebooks for school, Mehdi left his home in Afghanistan soon after his 17th birthday and headed to Iran, hoping to make his way to Europe and find work. Instead, Mehdi ended up fighting in Syria’s civil war, a conflict he had nothing to do with, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) […]

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2019 — The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to India of twenty-four (24) MH-60R Multi-Mission helicopters for an estimated cost of $2.6 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Africa’s Sahel region has seen a huge surge in civilian deaths in the past five months because of attacks by Islamist militants and ethnic militias, researchers said on Thursday. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), which is financed in part by the U.S. State Department, said it had documented 2,151 reported killings in 724 […]

SRINAGAR, India — He was the kind of professor students adored, always ready to help with books, advice or small loans. His colleagues in the sociology department found him reliable and ambitious, a scholar whose research on consumerism might propel him to a post elsewhere in India. So it was out of character when Mohammad Rafi Bhat failed to attend […]

The US envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban to end 17 years of war is heading back to the region for a new round of talks, the State Department said Tuesday. Zalmay Khalilzad will head to Afghanistan as well as neighboring Pakistan during the trip that began Monday and is scheduled to run through April 10. The State […]

KABUL, Afghanistan — The European Union’s top diplomat has expressed support for U.S.-led efforts to resolve Afghanistan’s 17-year war but stressed that the Afghan government should have a leading role in the process. The remarks by EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reflect the bloc’s displeasure that the peace talks with the Taliban have so far sidelined the government in […]

Introduction Nearly two decades have passed since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to topple the Taliban regime and root out al-Qaeda, and it is now the longest war in American history. Amid growing pressure at home, not least from President Donald Trump, to wind down American involvement and ongoing U.S.-Taliban talks in Doha, we […]

The U.S. envoy seeking a peace deal with the Taliban to end nearly 18 years of war in Afghanistan is heading back to the region amid growing tensions between Washington and Kabul over the absence of the Afghan government from the talks. “I’m on the road again to build on what was achieved earlier this month. Follow me here as […]

Pakistan has spoken out against the militarization of space after neighboring India said it had successfully managed to shoot down a low-orbit satellite in a missile test. “Space is the common heritage of mankind and every nation has the responsibility to avoid actions which can lead to the militarization of this arena,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 27. India and Pakistan have […]