The Taliban on Wednesday responded to comments made by US President-elect Joe Biden’s national security adviser nominee Jack Sullivan and said they believed in “the path of diplomacy”.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad flew out of Kabul on Tuesday night without having met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, sources confirmed Wednesday.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday evening at a press conference that 2021 will be a “pivotal year for NATO because we need to decide on our presence in Afghanistan.”

Pakistan on Wednesday night welcomed the start of the second round of intra-Afghan negotiations and said the two teams have made significant progress to date.

Security sources in southern Ghazni province said six Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel were killed in an insider attack by a Taliban infiltrator on Tuesday.

Iran’s foreign minister says it is willing to reposition an Iran-led Afghan militia in Syria to fight Islamic State forces in Afghanistan.

“They (robbers) have destroyed us. I am a taxi driver, but I can’t go anywhere,” said Abdul Matin, a resident in Kabul. Armed robbers on Sunday night robbed a pharmacist in the west of Kabul, stealing his money and mobile phones.

Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), Afghanistan’s National Power Company, said Tuesday that electricity imported from Uzbekistan for Kabul and some other provinces has been cut due to technical issues regarding the neighboring country’s power plants.

The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief Ahmad Zia Saraj confirmed Tuesday that a Chinese spy ring had been arrested in Kabul.

Nine Taliban insurgents, including a recently released prisoner, died in an airstrike in Batikot district of eastern Nangarhar province, the governor’s media office said.