A number of other Taliban’s peace delegation members have also arrived in Doha, but the group has not yet commented on the matter. Earlier, sources said some members of the government’s delegation were yet to reach Doha even after the start of the second round of intra-Afghan peace talks, but they hoped the remaining members would arrive there soon.

The Gizab district of central Uruzgan province has been cleared of Taliban insurgents after a 10-day military operation, the governor said on Friday.

Coinciding with the announcement by the United States that American troop numbers are now down to 2,500 in Afghanistan, First Vice President Amrullah Saleh told the BBC in an interview that Washington has made a mistake by conceding too much to the Taliban.

National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib said on Friday the Taliban wants to seize power by forcing the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Mohib also accused the Taliban of wasting time in Doha, saying the developments around the talks show that the Taliban wants to seize power by force.

Two Taliban drones hovered over 217 Pamir Corps in Kunduz for about half an hour on Friday and fired off a number of mortar rounds, officials said. The corps commander General Murad Ali Yazdani said the Taliban drones had flown over the base for about half an hour and had fired off mortar rounds that landed on the football field. […]

The explosion happened in Nanai area on Kabul-Kandahar Highway in Ghazni province, officials said. One civilian was killed and seven members of the Afghan National Army were wounded in a car bomb explosion that was recognized before reaching its target, a local official said on Friday.

The attack happened on the Orta-Boz outpost in the Imam Sahib district of Kunduz on Thursday night. At least 14 members of Afghan National Defense and Security Forces were killed in Taliban attacks in Kunduz and Kandahar over the last 24 hours, sources and provincial council members said.

Attacks took place on police checkpoints in Kunduz province, while a civilian died in Ghazni during an attempted suicide attack. At least nine Afghan security personnel have been killed in attacks on two police checkpoints overnight in the restive northern Kunduz province, with government officials blaming the Taliban for the attacks.

The radio station was attacked by an angry mob in the northern city of Kunduz on Friday. An angry mob joined by the imam of a mosque attacked Zohra Radio, a local radio station in the city of Kunduz, on Friday afternoon, leaving damage to its equipment and building, head of the radio station, Mohsen Ahmadi, said.

Dostum’s spokesman said the number of Dostum’s guards has also been reduced and commitments have not been addressed. Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum’s aide said that based on the political agreement, the new government was expected to add thousands of Dostum’s soldiers to the ranks of Afghan security forces, but this has not happened so far.