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.

Anti-China poison is spreading through (anti-) social media, with a role of pro-US lobbies, based on false info. See below realities:

A Pakistani court Thursday overturned on appeal the death sentence of a man accused of kidnapping and beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, sentencing him to seven years in prison for kidnapping only, and acquitted three of his co-accused.

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.

On 29 February, the Taliban and the U.S. signed an agreement that commits the U.S. to a fourteen-month phased withdrawal of military forces in exchange for Taliban commitments to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a safe harbour for terrorists. The agreement also obligates the Taliban to commence peace negotiations with the Afghan government and other Afghan power-brokers. This breakthrough […]

India is considering a proposal by Russia to supply the Indian navy with three refurbished submarines, capable of launching cruise missiles.

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.