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 […]

Bangi and Khwaja Ghar districts in the northern Takhar province were retaken from the Taliban in an operation by government and public uprising forces on Monday morning, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The operation was launched on Sunday night with Air Force support and “the districts were cleared of Taliban this morning,” the ministry said. “The Taliban […]

People in various provinces including Takhar, Balkh and Baghlan in the north, Badghis in the west, and Parwan in central Afghanistan, have taken up arms to fight the Taliban amid an escalation of violence by the group. Public uprising forces commanders in the provinces said they will stand beside the security forces to retake the lost districts. Some politicians said […]

Fifty of Afghanistan’s 370 districts have fallen to Taliban militants since May, according to the UN’s special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons, as the United States continues its military withdrawal from the country. “The Taliban recent advances are even more significant and are as a result of an intensified military campaign; more than 50 of Afghanistan’s 370 districts have fallen […]