A top Afghan official leading peacemaking efforts with the Taliban said Wednesday that he would be open to discussing formation of an interim government with the Islamist insurgent group when the two sides begin long-awaited peace negotiations.

The assault comes as Kabul accuses the fighters of stepping up attacks against security forces in recent weeks.

Pakistani police said Tuesday their counter-terrorism forces, acting on intelligence, raided a suspected militant hideout in the country’s northwest, triggering an intense shootout in which four suspects were killed.

The United States has strongly condemned Monday’s assassination of a team of five Afghan government employees, including two prosecutors, and demanded that authorities investigate the attack.

A roadside bombing killed at least six Afghan civilians traveling in a rickshaw in a northern province, an official said Wednesday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Gunmen opened fire at a car belonging to the Afghan attorney general’s office on Monday, killing all five people inside, including two prosecutors, an official said.

Taliban militants kidnapped about 60 civilians in central Afghanistan over the past week, officials said Sunday, with more than half still being held amid efforts by the United States and other foreign powers to start peace talks.

If questioning Narendra Modi Government by the opposition parties about the “sensitive” border dispute with China amounts to “demoralizing” the nation and its soldiers, is the ruling BJP ready to apply the same yardstick to its ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya who slammed the Jawaharlal Nehru regime during the Sino-India conflict?

On June 17, 2020, at least 10 Police personnel were killed when Taliban militants aggressively attacked their checkpoints in the Shurabak District of Kandahar Province.

The Taliban on Thursday rejected a top American general’s assessment that the al-Qaida leadership is still based in Afghanistan, insisting that no foreign fighters linked to the group are present in the country.