The 20-hour gun battle left officials scrambling to recapture hundreds of prisoners, including many from the Islamic State and the Taliban.

The Islamic State’s Khorasan province has claimed responsibility for a prison raid in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.

At least 18 people, including Afghan security forces personnel, were killed in a suspected car-bombing in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, hours before a three-day ceasefire was to begin in the country for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, officials said.

U.S. and coalition defense officials fear the Taliban are successfully ratcheting up attacks against the Afghan government, hoping to push it past its breaking point, while often keeping allied forces at bay.

In his yearly Eid-ul-Adha message, Taliban emir Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a rallying cry to his fighters, saying the Taliban is “on the threshold of establishing an Islamic government” after two decades of fighting.

An alliance of terror groups aimed at destabilizing peace in South Asia is emerging in Afghanistan as U.S. troops pull out of the war-ravaged nation, security officials said.

The developments could inject new optimism into a peace process that had been floundering over disagreements and insurgent attacks.

More than 1,280 Afghan civilians have been killed in the first six months of the year as fighting rages in Afghanistan despite a pact between the United States and Taliban militants, the United Nations said on Monday.

The Taliban wants all private companies and aid organisations operating in Afghanistan to register with the hardline Islamists, officials from the group said.

On February 29, 2020, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban organization) and the United States signed a deal in Doha, Qatar, which requires, among other points, the Afghan government to free 5,000 Taliban members from various prisons in Afghanistan. The Afghan government, which was not a party to the U.S.-Taliban deal, has been pressured by the United States to […]