Twenty Afghan security force members were freed from a Taliban prison during an operation by Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) members in Khashrod district of Nimroz province on Friday night, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Saturday. According to the MoD, 17 of them are Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and three others are Afghan National Police (ANP) […]

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday there could be an increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan in order to complete a safe withdrawal of all foreign forces by September 11. Addressing a press conference Friday, Kirby said: “It is not out of the realm the possibility that for a short period of time, there will have to […]

Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said Saturday that the current political system and Afghan National Security and Defense Forces have to be preserved. Hekmatyar stated that the United States has to do a “responsible” withdrawal and pave the way for the establishment of a transitional government in order to end the current crisis in Afghanistan.

EU Ambassador to Kabul Andreas Von Brandt has called on the Taliban to engage in serious negotiations with the Afghan government. Addressing the inauguration of the “Afghanistan Free Speech Hub” by a group of Afghan journalists and media officials in Kabul, Von Brandt said that the Taliban should not miss opportunities for maintaining peace in Afghanistan. “As we entered in […]

The Afghan government on Thursday said the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) are fully prepared to take the responsibility of providing security for their country. The Office of the National Security Council (ONSC) said that Afghanistan is battling on the frontline of a war against terrorism, and stated that international cooperation to Afghan security forces will continue even […]

Afghanistan will be plunged into a civil war if international troops leave, senior presidential adviser Mohammad Mohaqiq said a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kabul where he reassured Afghan leaders that Washington’s partnership with Afghanistan and its people will be enduring despite President Biden’s decision to disengage the US from a 20-year conflict. Mohaqiq warned that […]

A woman embracing her husband after his return from a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014. David Goldman/AP.More than 2,400 American service members were killed in Afghanistan and more than 20,000 were wounded. What exactly am I supposed to tell these mothers that their sons died for? What was it all for? It remains unclear if the more than 2,400 US […]

It had to be symbolic, and was represented as such. Forces of the United States will be leaving Afghanistan on September 11 after two decades of violent occupation, though for a good deal of this stretch, US forces were, at best, failed democracy builders, at worst, violent tenants. In his April 14 speech, President Joe Biden made the point that […]

President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday that US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s decision to withdraw foreign forces set the context for a “reset” of assumptions, alignments, and actions and that the Afghan government is “not at risk of collapse”. Addressing a virtual event organized by Azerbaijan’s Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Ghani said: “We are not at […]

Russia has hailed India as a welcome partner in its efforts to promote the Afghan peace process as foreign troops prepare to leave the war-torn country. “India (is our) closest friend and trusted partner. Big meeting of minds on the majority of global and regional issues” the Russian ambassador in New Delhi said on Wednesday. Nikolay Kudashev told a virtual […]