The Taliban announced a complete ban on the use of foreign currency in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a move sure to cause further disruption to an economy pushed to the brink of collapse by the abrupt withdrawal of international support. The surprise move came hours after at least 25 people were killed and more than 50 wounded when gunmen attacked Afghanistan’s […]

President Joe Biden met with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit and discussed a number of issues including NATO’s mission in Afghanistan and the need for humanitarian assistance. According to a statement issued by the White House, Biden underscored his desire to maintain constructive relations with Turkey, expand areas of cooperation, and […]

Seven people, including a child, were killed and dozens were wounded in an attack on Afghanistan’s biggest military hospital on Tuesday, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials confirmed. The attack on the Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan Hospital in Wazir Akbar Khan ended after IEA forces gunned down five Daesh attackers, an IEA official told Ariana News. The initial explosion rocked […]

Two suicide blasts and gunfire erupted Tuesday at the main military hospital in the Afghan capital, in an attack that left at least 20 people dead and dozens more injured, according to witnesses, a doctor and a Taliban official. Official Taliban statements put the death toll much lower. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said seven civilians and three of the group’s […]

Over the last three decades we have watched with anxiety the use of indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror among the masses or fear to achieve a religious or political aim. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence during peace time or in war against non-combatants -mostly civilians and neutral military personnel. The term […]

Afghanistan’s Taliban government is pressing for the release of billions of dollars of central bank reserves as the drought-stricken nation faces a cash crunch, mass starvation and a new migration crisis. Afghanistan parked billions of dollars in assets overseas with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe, but that money has been frozen since the Islamist Taliban […]

Every few days, bodies are dumped on the outskirts of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. Some have been shot or hanged, some beheaded. Many have handwritten notes stuffed into their pockets, accusing them of being members of Afghanistan’s branch of the Islamic State. No-one claims responsibility for the gruesome, extra-judicial killings, but the Taliban are widely assumed to be […]

Taliban diplomats have started work in the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, and at Afghan consulates in other Pakistani cities, two Taliban officials and two Afghan diplomats told VOA Thursday. VOA has obtained copies of official Taliban notifications sent to the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad. Pakistani officials say they have allowed the deployments even though Pakistan has not yet […]

Turkmen officials are due to travel to Kabul this week to discuss the development of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, Reuters reported. The pipeline, which would carry 33bn m3/year of gas from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh field to southeast Asia, was first discussed in the 1990s. But the project has struggled to secure financing, in part because of security concerns over the section […]

The United States’ Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, spoke with Prime Minister Imran Khan in Riyadh yesterday on the sidelines of the “Middle East Green Initiative (MGI)” Summit. In the regional context, the Imran Khan underscored the importance of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan for Pakistan and the region. Pakistan’s Prime Minister stressed the need for the international […]