Clashes between government forces and the Taliban have reached the outskirts of Charikar City in the central province of Parwan – 63 kilometers north of Kabul – but troops on the ground have not received orders from the center to retake the collapsed areas from the militants. The control of two districts in Parwan, Siah Gerd district and Shinwari, fell […]

Former vice president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is in Turkey for treatment, said Sunday he will soon return to his home province of Jawzjan in northern Afghanistan to suppress the Taliban in the north, after consultation with President Ghani and the Defense Ministry. “I predicted this years ago,” Dostum said, referring to Taliban offensives in northern provinces. “All districts, […]

US forces targeted Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan on Friday, Fox News reported citing a US defense official. According to the report, the US military has carried out airstrikes against the Taliban in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces. “An unknown number of Taliban fighters were killed in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces, where the strikes took place,” the report said. The Taliban […]

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has said Islamabad hopes the Afghan Taliban will prevent groups such as TTP from carrying out cross-border attacks against Pakistan. Speaking to the Express Tribune, Rashid said: “Prime Minister Imran Khan has categorically said that we [Pakistan] will not give any bases to the United States to use against Afghanistan.” “…But we also expect from […]

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday (June 24) said Afghan interpreters who aided American troops during the 20-year-long war would not be abandoned to their fate when the United States and its allies complete their withdrawal from that nation. The United States is planning to evacuate a group of vulnerable Afghan interpreters before the U.S. military completes its withdrawal from […]

The Afghan forces have regained control of seven districts in the last 24 hours amid a surge in Taliban offensives across the country. The Afghan military said Friday that the Afghan forces have recaptured the Mizaka, Ahmadabad, and Sayed Karam districts in Paktia; Andkhoi and Khan Charbagh in Faryab; and Khinjan and Dushi districts of Baghlan. This comes as Taliban […]

A group of 130 armed Taliban led by Maulvi Mardan joined the peace process in Herat on Thursday, officials confirmed. Herat Governor Abdul Sabor Qani said the group had been active in areas of Herat’s Shindand district, and that many villages in the area were under the group’s control. Local officials in Herat said the group entered the government’s peace […]

The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley told the US Senate that the Taliban had taken control of numerous districts since May, but that the group would not be able to capture major cities. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has meanwhile said that Afghanistan is still in the world’s spotlight and that the United States […]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Tuesday at a virtual conference that US President Joe Biden’s decision, endorsed by NATO, to withdraw all foreign troops from the country has been a “game-changing and game-shaping decision”. Addressing delegates at the Looking towards Peace in Afghanistan after the US-NATO Withdrawal Conference, organized by the Arab Center Washington, Ghani said: “By ending the guessing […]

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview with AP on Sunday said that the US came to Afghanistan to fight extremism and bring stability and is leaving nearly 20 years later having failed at both. “The international community came here 20 years ago with this clear objective of fighting extremism and bringing stability … but extremism is at the […]