NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday evening that no decision on troops withdrawal has yet been made by the Alliance and its partner nations. Addressing a virtual press conference after a two day NATO Defense Ministers meeting, Stoltenberg said the Alliance has not yet made the decision because it feels there is still a chance for peace in Afghanistan.

President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday urged the international community and regional nations to put pressure on the Taliban and their supporters to reach a political settlement. Addressing a follow-up workshop on the Geneva summit commitments in Kabul, Ghani raised the issue of the high levels of violence currently gripping the country.

Mubashir Muslimyar, a lecturer at Kabul University, and one other person were killed in an IED blast in Kabul, security sources said. Referring to the incident, Kabul police announced that an explosion targeted a vehicle in Kabul’s PD3 on Thursday, and that one person was killed in the blast.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at end of the two NATO defense ministers meetings in Brussels that the military alliance will only leave Afghanistan when security conditions on the ground allow it. Stoltenberg said that at this stage, the alliance has not made a final decision about a troop presence in Afghanistan.

The findings of TOLOnews show that up to 340 were either killed or wounded in security incidents in Afghanistan since the start of February as a result of magnetic IEDs, roadside bombs and targeted killings.

At least six police force members were killed and two more were wounded in an attack by the Taliban in Zabul province on Monday night, security sources said on Tuesday.

“We believe that the top leadership of Al Qaeda is still under Taliban protection,” said the head of the U.N. panel that tracks terrorist groups in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban have kept up a close relationship with Al Qaeda despite having pledged to stop cooperating with terrorist groups, permitting the militants to conduct training in Afghanistan and deploy fighters alongside […]

Lawmakers from Kandahar and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan’s House of Representatives on Wednesday said that internal rifts between local officials, the poor management of jobs, and the local authorities’ pursuit of personal business has pushed Kandahar to the verge of falling to the Taliban.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is seeking to increase its operations in Afghanistan, according to the courier chairman Arshad Malik. Currently, the airline provides flights between Kabul and Islamabad; however, in the future, it plans to bring flights to Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and Kandahar.

Former Vice President Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum on Wednesday said that there is still a presence of some top Al Qaeda affiliates in northern Afghanistan who have close ties with the Taliban.