Multiple suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province during Friday prayer services. Local health officials said at least 33 people were killed and 73 wounded in the incident with casualty rates expected to rise further.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban deputy minister of Information and Culture, boasted in an interview with Voice of America News (VOA) on Thursday that China is ready to pour billions of dollars into Afghanistan, even as the rest of the world attempts to isolate the extremist regime.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday reported the Taliban has quietly permitted teenage girls to return to school in four of Afghanistan’s northern provinces, ostensibly because Taliban 2.0 is willing to “shape policy around cultural differences across Afghanistan, unlike in the 1990s, when they imposed harsh social rules on everyone under their rule.”
A Shiite mosque in northeastern Afghanistan was attacked by a suicide bomber during prayer services on Friday, killing at least 43 people and injuring over 100 according to local officials. The Islamic State swiftly claimed responsibility for the blast.
The Taliban on Monday announced it captured a key district in the northern province of Kunduz and its forces have encircled the provincial capital, the latest battlefield gains in a relentless campaign waged by the Islamist extremists against the internationally recognized government in Kabul as U.S. and NATO forces prepare to end their 20-year intervention in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) over the weekend identified the two American soldiers killed on Saturday by an alleged “Taliban insider” donning an Afghan military uniform as the United States and the narco-jihadi group continue peace negotiations to end the more than 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.
Afghans in Taliban-controlled areas are increasingly forced to pay taxes to the terrorist organization for government services and protection as a “normal state of affairs,” as the level of control Kabul exerts over Afghanistan reaches the lowest point since the war began in October 2001, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The war in Afghanistan is at an “eroding stalemate” after more than 15 years of war, “tipping in the Taliban’s favor,” an unnamed senior administration official told The Washington Post (WaPo).
A Taliban suicide bomber killed himself and eight fellow jihadists on Tuesday after setting off his explosives vest prematurely while organizing coordinated attacks in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province.
Contents: Defense Sec’y Carter visits Afghanistan, warns of ISIS and resurgent Taliban; Taliban victories in Helmand put Obama’s Afghan withdrawal policy in doubt; Obama’s 30,000 troop Afghan ‘surge’ strategy now in seventh year
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The blame for the accidental bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz has fallen on some American troops who, as a result, have been suspended from their duties and are under investigation by the military for not following the rules of engagement during the strike, the top commander of U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan told reporters.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was treating 20 wounded Taliban members when it was bombed last month by U.S. military aircraft, according an internal review of the attack.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided inaccurate location data for nearly two dozen health facilities in the western Afghan province of Herat, placing the hospitals at risk of suffering the same deadly fate as the Doctors Without Borders medical center, a watchdog agency appointed by Congress found.
The Taliban terrorists’ reach in Afghanistan is greater than at any point since their regime was dethroned by the United States military in 2001, United Nations data obtained by The New York Times (NYT) reveals.
Taliban terrorists committed “widespread and grave” human rights violations while they fought Afghan government forces for control of the key northern city of Kunduz at the beginning of this month, reveals Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).
Contents: President Obama reverses himself on Afghanistan troop withdrawal; The ‘surge’ strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan; China and US poised for South China Sea military confrontation
An apology from the President of the United States is not enough for Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) (MSF). The organization wants to pursue an international investigation into the alleged “war crime” committed by U.S. forces when American fighter jets bombed an MSF facility that was operating in Taliban-contested territory, killing 22 people, including 12 members of MSF’s staff.
U.S. General John Campbell claims that Afghan allies called in a U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people at a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) (MSF) clinic, in direct contrast to an earlier statement which claimed that the American military acted independently.
An offensive launched by Afghan security forces failed to recapture the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The Taliban reconquered Kunduz city, part of the group’s former stronghold in northern Afghanistan and the first provincial capital seized by the militants since they lost power following the U.S.-led invasion in October 2001.
Contents: Taliban scores major strategic victory in Afghanistan, capturing Kunduz; The Afghan Taliban return to Kunduz after fourteen years; Repercussions for Central Asia
Hundreds of Taliban terrorists have captured half of the strategic capital of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan and freed 500 inmates from a local prison including fellow militants, according to news reports.
Contents: Report: Greece’s debt crisis being kicked down the road; Afghan Taliban strikes Afghan parliament in Kabul; Afghan Taliban close to seizing the city of Kunduz
Anti-government riots and violence increase in Burundi; Concerns over an all-out crisis civil war in Burundi are misplaced; Fears grow in Central Asia of an ISIS-Taliban alliance in Afghanistan
