After clearing the latest hurdle of a prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the Taliban, there will now be a push to capitalize on the momentum to move forward with peace talks.

Six prisoners sought by the Taliban left Kabul on a flight to Doha on Thursday evening, two government sources told Reuters, as the insurgents confirmed they would start long-awaited peace talks on Saturday.

From 2009 to last year, more than 100,000 civilians were killed or injured in the war-torn nation, according to United Nations estimates.

What took so long? The U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha, Qatar on 29 February specified that peace talks among the Afghan parties to the conflict would begin on 10 March. After months of delay, these intra-Afghan talks are finally set to commence, also in Doha, on 12 September.

Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai spent years lying low in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been based since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the extremist group from power in neighboring Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s government is optimistic that the delayed peace talks with the Taliban can start soon, acting Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar told an online audience. Atmar’s comments are the latest sign that one reason for the five-month delay, disputes over the two sides’ release of prisoners they have been holding, may be nearly resolved. Taliban attacks on government forces have […]

On 01 September at 05:00 am local time, a Taliban VBIED detonated outside the gate to a ‘Convoys Protection Unit,’ or operations unit facility in Gardez. A small assault team then stormed the compound, killing at least 3 members of the security forces. The attackers allegedly were also wearing suicide vests. Per the Taliban statement, the facility was destroyed and […]

Afghanistan has resumed the controversial release of hundreds of Taliban prisoners. A Taliban official told the AFP news agency that 200 prisoners had been freed by the Afghan authorities since Monday, while the Taliban reportedly released four Afghan commandos.

Top leaders in Afghanistan announced Thursday that U.S.-backed peace talks with the Taliban insurgency will start next week to negotiate a political settlement to the country’s long conflict.

Taliban insurgents set off a truck bomb on Tuesday in an attack on Afghan army commandos, killing three people and wounding 41, the defence ministry said, despite steps towards peace talks with the U.S.-backed government.