Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said Thursday that Washington’s claim they killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahir in Kabul is still only an allegation and that the IEA’s investigation is ongoing. “Zawahiri’s death is still a claim and efforts are going on for this case and his death report is not yet finalized,” said Mujahid. Speaking […]

Conditions for religious freedom in Afghanistan have “drastically deteriorated” since the Taliban seized power last year as the last U.S.-led foreign troops pulled out after 20 years of war, a bipartisan U.S. commission said on Tuesday. The Sunni Muslim extremists’ “harsh enforcement” of their hardline version of Islam “violates the freedom of religion or belief” of a wide range of […]

Members of the United Nations Security Council remained divided Monday over whether to exempt some of Afghanistan’s Taliban officials from a travel ban, diplomatic sources said. Under a 2011 Security Council resolution, 135 Taliban leaders are subject to a sanctions regime that includes asset freezes and travel bans. Thirteen of them benefited from an exemption from the travel ban, renewed […]

A roadside bombing on Friday killed two policemen in a former militant stronghold in northwestern Pakistan, police said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. The district’s police chief, Abdus Samad Khan, said the bomb was remotely detonated. A search for perpetrators was underway, he added. Bajur has […]

A former security force member, Rahmani, who had interrogated and investigated Anas Haqqani while he was in a Kabul prison returned to Afghanistan recently and met up for a chat. Haqqani, who was in prison in Kabul for five years before being released in November 2019, said Rahmani had been his interrogator while in prison. “Part of the interrogation and […]

China will resume issuing visas to Afghans from August 1 and allow 98 percent of Afghan imports to enter tax free, it was reported on Friday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the measures when he met Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Uzbekistan on Thursday, Reuters reported citing a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry. Wang also told […]

Afghanistan’s economy has deteriorated significantly since the Taliban’s return to power, owing largely to a reduction in international aid flows. Many well-educated Afghans have left the country, leaving Taliban-controlled Afghanistan short on entrepreneurs, skilled workers, and domestic capital resources. Taliban success in curbing official corruption and the end of the civil war partly mitigates the economic difficulties; yet half the […]

One year after their takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban have struggled to govern the country, maintained a close relationship with al-Qaeda, and fostered an atmosphere of violence, insecurity, and economic stagnation. The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan has drastically deteriorated since the Taliban consolidated power in August 2021, with access to education and employment being greatly curtailed. The […]

One year after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, fighting has decreased considerably. Yet serious security problems remain, not least the foreign militants still in the country. External actors should press the new authorities to fulfil their commitments and avoid any steps that could reignite large-scale violence. What’s new? The world’s deadliest war subsided into an uneasy calm after the Taliban […]

On August 8, 2022, four soldiers were killed in a suicide blast targeting a military convoy in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Two days later, on August 10, Ittehad Musallah Islami Mujahideen (IMAM)’s spokesperson Abu Basheer Waziristani claimed responsibility for the attack. On August 3, 2022, two policemen were killed and another two […]