Taliban narco-jihadis turned down Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s offer on Sunday to open a political post in Afghanistan, including in the group’s opium-rich birthplace of Kandahar, saying they want international recognition of their existing political office in the Qatari capital of Doha instead.
The government of Afghanistan lost more territory to the Taliban in recent months, further plunging the number of districts under the control or influence of Kabul to unprecedented lows, a U.S. watchdog agency revealed in its latest report to Congress on Thursday.
Taliban narco-jihadis on Tuesday issued a statement threatening to pull the plug on peace negotiations with the United States, likely over America’s insistence that Kabul participates in the talks, a demand long rejected by the terrorist group.
A terrorist suicide attack on a gathering of top religious figures in Kabul, Afghanistan, marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad this week killed at least 50 people and wounded 72 others.
The number of Afghan districts under the control or influence of Kabul “reached the lowest level” since the American government began keeping records in November 2015, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog agency appointed by Congress, reported on Thursday.
The Taliban reportedly claimed to be behind Wednesday’s crash of an Afghan army helicopter near Afghanistan’s border with Iran that killed all 25 people on board, including senior officials.
Taliban leaders are reportedly putting together a team to negotiate with the United States and signaling which concessions they will require to make such talks possible, prominently including a release of Taliban prisoners taken during the 17-year war in Afghanistan.
Russia invited both the Afghan government and the Taliban to September 4 peace talks in Moscow. Kabul and Washington swiftly refused.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced a ceasefire plan on Sunday, but the Taliban promptly kidnapped 170 people from buses in an act of highway banditry. On Monday morning, Ghani all but abandoned the ceasefire and instructed his armed forces to continue operations against the Taliban until the terrorist group scales back its violent activities.
Taliban jihadists may be willing to abandon their long-held precondition that U.S.-NATO forces must completely pull out from Afghanistan before they agree to negotiate an end to the 17-year-old Afghan war, according to a report.
The unprecedented level of Afghan opium cultivation has spread across the country to areas held by both Taliban terrorists and the U.S.-backed Kabul government.
Contents: ISIS-K bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, targets returning vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum; ISIS-K claims credit for bomb targeting Uzbek warlord General Dostum
A new measure unveiled in Afghanistan in July to prohibit government health personnel from performing “invasive and medically meaningless vaginal and anal exams” on women and girls to ascertain whether they are “virgins” is a step in the right direction to protect women’s rights, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week in a statement welcoming the policy.
U.S. service members in Kabul took a moment’s respite from the wave of terrorist bombings in Afghanistan in recent months to enjoy a lunchtime ceremony in honor of America’s 242nd Independence Day on the Fourth of July.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A bomb blast inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan that was being used as a voter registration center killed at least 12 people and wounded 33, officials said.
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis suggested this week that the Afghan Taliban has suffered military setbacks in recent months.
Contents: Nine journalists killed by suicide bombers in Kabul Afghanistan; The Taliban announces the Spring fighting season, codename Al Khandaq; Analysts guess at why Afghanistan’s security situation keeps deteriorating
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for a heinous attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul Wednesday that killed up to 33 and injured 65 others while they were celebrating the Persian new year.
Contents: Massive earth fissure suddenly opens up in mid-Kenya, signaling an eventual split in all of Africa; How China would lose a war with the United States; ISIS-linked terrorists in Afghanistan kill 32 in bombing of Shia Shrine in Kabul
The Taliban has expressed a desire to have discussions with the U.S., instead of Kabul, about ending the nearly 17-year war in Afghanistan, despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s historic peace offer.
The United States has deemed protecting the sprawling Afghan capital of Kabul the “main effort” of an intensified U.S.-backed offensive following a series of high-profile terrorist assaults at the hands of the Taliban and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), revealed the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has provided what it claims to be proof to Islamabad that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and Taliban attackers who killed about 200 people on Afghan soil over the last month trained and planned the assaults in Pakistan.
President Donald Trump had sharp words for the Taliban on Monday after the latest terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has claimed responsibility for an attack on an army post near a military academy in the Afghan capital of Kabul that reportedly killed 11 soldiers and wounded 16 others.
Contents: New massive Taliban attack in Kabul Afghanistan kills 95; Trump doubles down on war on Taliban in Afghanistan
On Sunday, Pope Francis denounced the “terrible terrorist massacre” carried out by Islamic militants of the Taliban in the Afghan capital of Kabul Saturday. After his usual midday prayer of the Angelus in the Vatican Sunday, the Pope turned to
An ambulance laden with explosives blew up near a security checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, killing at least 95 and injuring at least 150 more, officials said.
The Pakistani government has rejected Afghan officials’ claim that the Haqqani Network, considered one of the most dangerous Pakistan-based terrorist groups, carried out an attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan this weekend.
Contents: Multiple Afghanistan Taliban terror attacks leave ‘victory’ plans in tatters; Sunday’s attacks throw new doubts into claims of ‘victory’ in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — As gunmen went on a nighttime rampage through Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday, Aziz Tayeb posted a desperate plea on Facebook — “Pray for me. I may die.”
KABUL, Afghanistan — A Taliban assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Afghanistan’s capital killed at least six people, including a foreigner, and pinned security forces down for more than 13 hours before the last attacker was killed on Sunday, with the casualty toll expected to rise.
(AFP) Four gunmen attacked Kabul’s luxury Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday and started shooting at guests, an Afghan official said, in the latest violence to strike the Afghan capital.
The supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban rubber stamped Pakistan-based “exploratory talks” on re-engaging in peace negotiations to end the more than 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, reports Reuters, signaling that the jihadist group’s battlefield successes in days of yore may be gone.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for targeting a Shiite cultural center in Kabul with bombs, killing more than 40 people and wounding over 80 others.
Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to visit President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, as well as United States military troops stationed there, revealing his trip only after five and a half hours on the ground in the country.
May Jeong’s Friday feature on Afghanistan for Politico opens with a telling vingette of the scene in Kabul’s U.S. Embassy on election day, 2016, mid-day in the far-off Afghan capital.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A strong smell of blood and flesh permeated the Imam Zaman mosque in Kabul on Saturday hours after dozens of Shiite worshipers were slaughtered by a suicide bomber during evening prayers.
Pakistan’s ongoing plan to build a fence to prevent cross-border jihadi attacks along most of the porous international boundary it shares with Afghanistan continues to dismay U.S-backed Kabul, which claims the barrier would break up families and friends.
A new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found the $70 billion American campaign to secure Afghanistan deeply flawed in several crucial respects, particularly its failure to adequately train local police and military forces to secure the country against a resurgent Taliban and invading Islamic State.
What remains is for the U.S. to fight for its own strategic priorities in Afghanistan. Anything less, or more, will be unsustainable, militarily and politically.
