The death toll in a deadly car bomb attack in Herat city rose to eight, the Interior Ministry (MoI) confirmed early Saturday morning. The MoI said that an explosive-laden vehicle detonated in PD14 of the city on Friday night.

The Afghan National Security Advisor (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib said Saturday that Afghanistan will attend the Moscow and Istanbul peace conferences scheduled to take place in the next few weeks. The Russia-backed Moscow summit is scheduled for March 18, while the US-backed peace conference will be held in Turkey in April.

Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi warned on Saturday against a hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan of foreign troops, saying that the Taliban’s ties to al-Qaeda remain intact and that a swift pullout would worsen global counterterrorism efforts.

The Taliban took control of the center of Almar district in Faryab province on Thursday afternoon at about 1pm, according to local security sources. Naqibullah Fayeq, provincial governor, said that the security forces have retreated from the center of the district to “prevent casualties of civilians and local forces.”

On July 17, 1973, former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan led a coup against Afghanistan’s last king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, overthrowing the monarchy system and setting the stage for a republic system to be formed in Afghanistan. TOLOnews reporter Haseeba Atakpal discussed the origins and history of the republic system, and centralized and decentralized systems in Afghanistan with analysts, using […]

President Ashraf Ghani held a meeting at the Presidential Palace with key Afghan political leaders on Wednesday to discuss the peace process, particularly focusing on the latest peace plan proposed by the US. Sources who attended the meeting said on Thursday there was no broad agreement on a way forward. According to the sources, consultation between the Afghan political leaders […]

Washington’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) John F Sopko this week warned that the May 1 troop withdrawal deadline does not only apply to foreign military forces, numbering around 10,000 in total, but also to as many as 18,000 foreign contractors and trainers currently in Afghanistan.

Washington’s new plan for a transitional government that includes the Taliban is the best chance to accelerate stalled peace talks between the group and the Afghan government, former president Hamid Karzai said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. Karzai said after decades of war, Afghans themselves “are in a hurry for peace”.

US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in its latest report has said that security remains the most crucial and enduring high-risk area because the Taliban have not significantly changed their tactics. The report says high levels of violence, or political objectives, and terrorist groups in Afghanistan like Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and al-Qaeda, although reduced, remain in the country. […]

Seven Civil Society Organizations have jointly slammed government for compromising on democratic values, and went as far as to label government a “dictatorship” and Afghanistan a country its people no longer consider safe to live in.