CIA Director William J. Burns had a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar Monday in Kabul. The former deputy secretary of state was sent to attend the clandestine rendezvous by President Biden amid the chaotic circumstances surrounding the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover. Anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the matter confirmed the development to the […]

US President Joe Biden is likely to come under pressure Tuesday from G7 leaders to extend the August 31 deadline for evacuating US citizens, Western nationals and Afghans trying to flee the country in the wake of the takeover of Afghanistan by the Islamist Taliban. Biden will participate on Tuesday in a virtual meeting with Group of Seven leaders as […]

The Taliban on Tuesday eliminated any ambiguity surrounding the United States’ withdrawal deadline, saying the American military must be out of Afghanistan by the Biden administration’s August 31 departure date. Amid rumors that President Biden is deliberating pushing out the expiration date to evacuate the thousands of American nationals and refugees still stuck in Afghanistan’s interior, a Taliban spokesman announced […]

President Vladimir Putin affirmed it will be necessary to undertake a process of dialogue with the Taliban in the coming days. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured Russia will not intervene militarily or diplomatically in Afghanistan. “No one has any intention of intervening,” he stressed, explaining that an intervention would “evidently create an additional risk factor regarding a new […]

Afghanistan was the frontline of the United States declared war on terror twenty years ago. This led to the US invasion of the country after the September 11 terrorist attacks, where there was a search for Osama bin Laden, and other leaders of the Al-Qaeda movement. The Taliban were dislodged as punishment for providing safe haven for Al-Qaeda, leading to […]

All eyes now turned on 6 important figures who will guide Taliban’s major decisions as group prepares to form government Though the Taliban’s ultimate decision-making body is a 26-member leadership council, or Rahbari Shura, six figures stand out for their top positions in the insurgent group. The Taliban have come under increasing international scrutiny recently after they captured most of […]

With the dramatic sweep of the Taliban across Afghanistan in the face of crumbling resistance from the Ashraf Ghani regime, the wheel of history has turned full circle. In the end, the 180,000 Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, and a police force with 150,000 personnel, besides an air force and other security wings armed with technology and trained by […]

The scene was a familiar one as warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum jetted into northern Afghanistan this week — a promise of bloodshed and vengeance, and no apology for his vicious past. Despite a series of war crimes linked to his forces, the Afghan government is hoping Dostum’s military acumen and seething hatred of the Taliban can help beat back the […]

The Panjshir Valley north of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul is the final major centre of resistance to the Taliban, but analysts say the fighters gathered there will struggle if the Islamist hardliners launch a full-scale attack. Surrounded by the high peaks of the Hindu Kush north of Kabul, the Panjshir has long had a reputation as a bastion of resistance — […]

On 15 August 2021, the Taliban arrived in Kabul and the Afghan President fled the country. A week earlier, the Taliban barely had half the country under their control. Afghanistan is often called the ‘graveyard of empires’, since from the British Empire in the 19th century to the USSR in the 20th, no one has managed to impose their will […]