The Taliban have put the son of the movement’s feared founder in charge of their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating team, Taliban officials said. The shake-up, one of the most significant in years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan.

‘VIOLENCE UNACCEPTABLY HIGH’: As Afghanistan reels from another deadly attack that killed 11 Afghan intelligence workers and wounded 60 civilians, NATO has issued a stark warning that the Taliban are failing to keep their promise in a February agreement to reduce the overall level of violence in return for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Several mortar shells fired by Pakistani troops landed in a border village in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four civilians and wounding nine others, an Afghan provincial spokesman said.

At 11:00 am local time on 13 July, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) facility in Aybak, the provincial capital of Samagan province in central Afghanistan was stormed by three militants of the Taliban’s ‘martyrdom brigade’ after a massive car bomb explosion. Dozens of civilians were hurt by glass shards from the blown out windows. The Taliban claim to have […]

The Taliban said Thursday it has already released 845 Afghan security forces under an ongoing prisoner swap with the Kabul government and is working to free the remaining 155 in line with the insurgent group’s agreement with the United States.

Insurgents bombed the entrance of an Afghan intelligence complex in a provincial capital, then stormed the offices in a sustained gun battle, killing at least 11.

The Taliban has claimed credit for today’s suicide assault in the provincial capital of Samangan in northern Afghanistan. The attack belies U.S. officials’ claims that the Taliban has not been fighting in Afghanistan’s cities.

Afghanistan’s Taliban has dismissed as “illogical” escalating domestic and foreign calls for the insurgent group to cease hostilities before the commencement of intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

In talks in Doha and in Kabul, the Taliban’s leaders have struck a conciliatory tone: Issues of human rights, democracy and power sharing are open for discussion, they said, and will be worked out during peace talks with the Afghan government.

And What U.S. Withdrawal Means for Tehran Negotiations to end the long-running war between Afghanistan’s central government and the Taliban slowly inch along, punctuated by spasms of violence. The Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) often lash out with attacks on the Afghan security forces and civilians, with the ISKP frequently targeting Shiite communities. Any settlement will likely […]