Eight soldiers were killed as a car bomb went off next to a military base in Shirzad district of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, said a statement of provincial government released here.

A presidential aide has asked the Taliban to honour the commitments to peace before making fresh demands. Over the past two years, the government had taken a string of steps towards peace, Waheed Omer told reporters here on Saturday.

Three Taliban militants have been killed, five wounded and four others detained during security forces’ operations in northern Balkh and Samangan provinces, said the 209th Shaheen Military Corps on Sunday.

The European Union and other diplomatic missions in Afghanistan including Australia, Canada, the UK, the US and NATO, all called out the Taliban on Sunday and demanded an end to the violence and to the destruction of vital infrastructure installations.

International troops plan to stay in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline envisaged by the insurgent Taliban’s deal with the United States, four senior NATO officials told Reuters. The move could however escalate tensions with the Taliban which is demanding a full withdrawal.

During talks with a visiting Taliban delegation, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Sunday called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan.

Members of the Afghan Republic’s religious delegation of the peace talks team on Sunday met with leaders of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Doha to discuss the peace process.

The secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Vladimir Norov said on Friday ISIS (Daesh) militants have moved to Afghanistan from the Middle East and posed a threat to regional security.

President Ashraf Ghani implied on Friday that he expects the Biden administration to keep US troops in Afghanistan for longer than anticipated under the US-Taliban deal, signed by the Trump administration, saying the Taliban aren’t meeting their obligations to reduce violence.

Mangal Bagh along with 2 other militants killed in roadside bomb attack in Nangarhar, local official says A key commander of Pakistani militants was killed in eastern Afghanistan, a local official said on Thursday.