In what may be one of the oddest pandemic health campaigns, the Taliban/IEA is educating Afghans on the dangers of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 through awareness meetings and other methods. By distributing masks, soaps and other protections, the group is encouraging civilians to heed the directions of health practitioners and take all necessary precautions in curbing the spread of the virus. By […]

As U.S. negotiators raced to clinch last month’s landmark deal with the Taliban, several shadowy figures played a surprising but significant role: former Guantanamo Bay detainees whose release in a 2014 prisoner exchange sparked a partisan firestorm.

Taliban insurgents have killed 27 members of the Afghan security forces, police and government officials said on Monday, as a peace effort brokered by the United States struggles to get off the ground.

A Taliban delegation arrived in Kabul Tuesday to monitor the long-delayed release of their 5,000 detainees under a prisoner swap with the Afghan government brokered by the United States.

Levels of violence in rural areas peaked again after Feb “reduction in violence” period did not extend into March, while intra-Afghan negotiations that could lead to a ceasefire were delayed.

President Ghani took an important step toward intra-Afghan talks by nominating 21 government representatives to negotiate with the Taliban. Crisis Group expert Andrew Watkins says this list seems to enjoy broad consensus among Afghan political figures, which earlier lists had lacked. The timing of the release – less than a day after U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo visited Kabul, harshly […]

The Taliban seized control of the district of Yamgan in the northern Afghanistan province of Badakhshan. The district had been under siege for several months before falling to the Taliban today.

As the U.S. military continues to wonder if Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces are the result of a “splinter” group or part of its official strategy, the Taliban continues to publicize its daily military operations.

Just days after the United States threatened to withdraw $1 billion in aid over a political crisis that risks upending the U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed last month, the Afghan government and the Taliban took steps that could move the two sides closer to beginning formal talks.

Afghanistan’s government announced a 21-member team to negotiate with the Taliban, in a tentative sign of progress for the United States-brokered peace deal.