U.S. and Afghan airstrikes hit Taliban targets overnight in southern Helmand province in an effort to dislodge the insurgents after they captured much of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, officials said Wednesday. The United Nations and Human Rights Watch asked both sides to take care to prevent civilian casualties as the fighting rages on. The Taliban have waged a […]

The former police chief of Kandahar and a member of the High Council of the National Reconciliation (HCNR), Tadin Khan, on Wednesday stated that the Taliban “does not believe in human rights,” saying the group has killed potentially up to 900 people in Kandahar province in the past month and a half. Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying […]

The Taliban have taken over a TV station in Afghanistan’s strategic Helmand province, a source at the TV and radio station told CNN on Monday, marking the latest of a series of advances by the militant group in the country. The Helmand TV station, located in the city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is operated by state-run […]

“I don’t think we have quite come to the idea of a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan,” said T.S. Tirumurti, the Indian UN ambassador. UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — The Security Council is not considering a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan although the situation in the country is a matter of grave concern in light of the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. […]

The former US commander for Afghanistan, David Petraeus, has told The Times that the United States has abandoned its duty to protect the country and that it will leave the nation to a “bloody, brutal civil war.” Mr Petraeus, an architect of the counterinsurgency programmes in both Iraq and Afghanistan, warned that the nation is in danger of a takeover […]

David Martinon, the French Ambassador to Kabul said this week that France is very disappointed in the slow progress around the peace talks but that the Afghan Republic has made huge concessions while the Taliban has not done the same. In an exclusive interview with Ariana News, he said: “We felt a very strong willingness from the republican side to […]

Thousands of Kabul residents took to the streets of the city at 9pm on Tuesday night chanting slogans, including Allahu Akbar (God is Great), in support of the Afghan security forces who are battling the Taliban on multiple fronts across Afghanistan. In addition to chanting slogans, residents waved the country’s flag, showing support for the republic system and the government […]

Helmand, Kandahar and Herat have been hit hard these past few days by intense battles between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban, officials confirmed. One of the hardest hit has been Herat, which has witnessed two days of solid fighting around the city itself, while heavy attacks have been launched on villages to the west of the city. As […]

The U.S. and British embassies in Kabul said on Monday the insurgent Taliban may have committed war crimes in southern Afghanistan by carrying out revenge murders of civilians, a charge denied by the insurgents. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban negotiating team member based in Doha, told Reuters that tweets containing the accusations were “baseless reports.” The U.S. Embassy in the capital […]

Taliban officials claim to have taken control of more than half of Afghanistan from the government. Their targets: cities, airports and border crossings – with civilians often caught in the middle. Officials in Kandahar said that two children were among the dead when a mortar shell hit a taxi today. Many hope to leave the country, but are being forced […]