Category: Afghanistan

Conflict trends

Afghanistan Representatives from the Afghan government and the Taliban met in Doha this week to begin intra-Afghan peace talks, which were supposed to immediately follow the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February. Crisis Group expert Andrew Watkins says that after persistent delays, expectations for the first round of talks should remain modest as both sides still need to agree on an agenda […]

Read more ›

Pompeo says fewer than 200 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan today

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that there are fewer than 200 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan today. Pompeo was speaking at an Atlantic Council event.

Read more ›

Taliban Tell Afghan Government They Have No Aim to Seize Power

Taliban leaders told their government counterparts at the Afghan peace talks they wouldn’t seek to seize power and that their struggle was to free the country from foreign forces and establish an Islamic system.

Read more ›

Fight and talk: Facing negotiations, Taliban almost took key Afghan city

Khan Agha has endured years of violence in Kunduz, but it was the Taliban’s attack on the strategic city in northeastern Afghanistan, as the government and insurgents were preparing for historic peace talks, that unnerved him.

Read more ›

Majority of Americans Support Trump’s Deal With Taliban to End Afghan War

A new U.S. public survey has found that two-thirds of supporters of President Donald Trump “strongly” or “somewhat” support his deal with the Islamist Taliban to extricate the United States from the 19-year war in Afghanistan.

Read more ›

U.S. commander: Intel still hasn’t established Russia paid Taliban ‘bounties’ to kill U.S. troops

“It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me,” Gen. Frank McKenzie told NBC News. McKenzie oversees U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Read more ›

Taliban talks: US peace envoy ‘not happy about’ release of prisoners

The US envoy for peace in Afghanistan has told the BBC he was “not happy about” a controversial deal to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in order to secure historic peace talks.

Read more ›

Afghanistan and Taliban Begin First-Ever Direct Peace Talks

The Afghanistan government and the Taliban began on Saturday their first direct talks to end nearly two decades of fighting, a negotiation brokered by the U.S. as part of its plan to withdraw from its longest war.

Read more ›

The Daily 202: Taliban prisoners linked to killing U.S. troops are released ahead of 9/11 anniversary

President Trump warned in characteristically over-the-top terms during a political rally in Michigan on Thursday night that Joe Biden, if elected, would invite “terrorists” into the suburbs by raising the cap on the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States.

Read more ›

Five Things to Know About the Afghan Peace Talks

After decades of conflict, the Taliban and Afghan government will seek to negotiate a political settlement that could end the United States’ longest war.

Read more ›