The head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a video conference to discuss the Afghan peace process, the Islamist group and the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday, in a bid to remove hurdles in the path to peace talks.

The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming international relations not just by straining relations among powerful states, but also by disrupting violent nonstate actors. Perhaps no major militant outfit has felt the impact as much as the Taliban. The group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, is either seriously ill with the virus or possibly dead. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the powerful Haqqani Network […]

Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan said on Monday that negotiations between the Afghan government and the insurgent Taliban were expected to begin soon but that the release of 5,000 prisoners and a reduction of violence were the final hurdles.

The government and the Taliban pointed blame at each other in the latest attack. But in this war, there is diminishing clarity on who is to blame for the bodies piling up.

Russia has denied reports that it offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government is facing hard decisions over the futures of hundreds of detained radicalised women and their children.

A U.S. watchdog warned that “systemic” corruption within the Afghan government is weakening its bargaining position in upcoming peace negotiations with the Taliban, even as the insurgents said Thursday they were ready and had compiled their agenda for the long-awaited talks.

A top Afghan official leading peacemaking efforts with the Taliban said Wednesday that he would be open to discussing formation of an interim government with the Islamist insurgent group when the two sides begin long-awaited peace negotiations.

The assault comes as Kabul accuses the fighters of stepping up attacks against security forces in recent weeks.

The United States has strongly condemned Monday’s assassination of a team of five Afghan government employees, including two prosecutors, and demanded that authorities investigate the attack.