Taliban - Page 41

The Independent Election Commission in Afghanistan on Friday reportedly decided to postpone parliamentary elections in the Taliban birthplace of Kandahar province for a week in the wake of an attack that left two senior provincial officials dead.

An unprecedented number of women are contesting parliamentary seats across Afghanistan despite the threat they face at the hands of Islamic extremists, particularly jihadi groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), various news outlets acknowledged this week.

The more the U.S. military expends on unnecessary wars, the less ready it will be for necessary wars, warned Army Col. (Ret.) Larry Wilkerson.

McSally responded to Sinema’s recently unearthed remarks that it was OK for Americans to go and fight for the Taliban against U.S. troops. 

The killing and maiming of civilians, mostly at the hands of the Taliban and to a lesser extent the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), has reached “extreme levels” in Afghanistan, the United Nations reported this week.

The Taliban ramped up its rhetoric Monday against peace talks and vowed to disrupt the looming parliamentary elections soon after the Trump administration’s appointee to lead peace talks arrived in Kabul over the weekend.

Sgt. James A. Slape, a 23-year-old explosive ordnance disposal technician from Morehead City, North Carolina, was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb as he worked to clear an area of explosives in southern Helmand in Afghanistan.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide bombing at an election rally in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, home to the terrorist group’s most prominent stronghold in the region.

A Pakistani cleric known as the “Father of the Taliban” called on China to participate in negotiations to end the 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan, Bloomberg reported this week.

Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Kabul in the last year has made an “unprecedented” offer of unconditional peace talks to the Taliban as well as the chance to operate as a legitimate political group.

The Afghan Taliban cautioned U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the weekend against engaging in negotiations to end the 17-year-old war with “fake” insurgent delegations, stressing that such meetings could derail “any possible genuine process of dialogue.”

Pakistan remained a safe haven last year for Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network (HQN) jihadis despite the pressure the Trump administration applied on the country to stop harboring terrorist groups, the U.S. State Department reported on Wednesday.

An Indian newspaper on Tuesday accused the U.S. government of underestimating the Taliban’s strength and influence as American officials continue in their efforts to convince the terrorist group to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.

Multiple Taliban attacks on police and military bases and checkpoints in different parts of Afghanistan reportedly left at least 27 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) dead, Afghan officials revealed on Monday.

35-year-old Bryant Neal Vinas of New York has been described as the first American to join al-Qaeda after the 9/11 terrorist attack. In an interview published on Monday, Vinas said he joined because he was enraged at U.S. policy in Afghanistan and the Middle East, but was disappointed to find the experience “extremely boring” after his combat missions into Afghanistan were aborted and he was told he lacked the religious qualifications to become a suicide bomber.

Nearly 17 years after the Afghanistan War began, there are few signs of progress and indications the Taliban is increasing its hold onto power in Afghanistan, despite continued U.S. support for the Afghan government.

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.

Seventeen years after it perpetrated the September 11 terrorist attack, al-Qaeda is arguably stronger and better-positioned than ever.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, accompanied by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday for meetings with President Ashraf Ghani to discuss security issues and the prospect of peace talks with the Taliban.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for meetings with top officials and the new prime minister, Imran Khan. Pompeo told reporters his objective was to “reset” America’s troubled relations with Pakistan.

The Taliban released a statement on Tuesday confirming the death of Mawlavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the notorious Haqqani Network (HQN), a terrorist organization allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Haqqani Network quickly made it known that new leaders are prepared to take over and Haqqani’s death will not hinder its operations.

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has revealed direct links between terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan and cells in both Britain and “the whole of continental Europe”.

The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that China is constructing a military base in a remote region of Afghanistan close to Xinjiang, the troubled province where much of China’s Muslim population lives. Both Chinese and Afghan officials quickly denied the report and said China is merely helping to train Afghan counter-terrorist forces.

Army Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson said Wednesday in his last briefing as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that President Trump’s Afghanistan strategy was working, citing progress in the peace process, or reconciliation, with the Taliban.

Russia invited both the Afghan government and the Taliban to September 4 peace talks in Moscow. Kabul and Washington swiftly refused.

Reports on Monday indicated Taliban leadership has rejected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s offer of a three-month ceasefire coinciding with the Muslim holiday of Eid. The Taliban also denied responsibility for a rocket attack on Kabul during a televised speech by President Ghani on Tuesday.

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.

The “several hundred” members of the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terrorist group are intent on carrying out attacks inside India, the United Nations warned in a new report.

Taliban terrorists killed at least 35 Afghan soldiers and nine policemen after they attacked a military outpost in the country’s northern Baghlan province early Wednesday morning.

The relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the jihadi allies behind the 9/11 attacks on the American homeland, “remains firm” nearly 17 years after the United States declared war on the two terrorist groups in Afghanistan, the United Nations recently reported.

A Taliban offensive to conquer the city of Ghazni in Afghanistan, the capital of a province of the same name, reportedly killed about 100 Afghan security forces and at least 20 civilians since it began last Friday.

Contents: Afghan army, backed by US, struggles to regain Ghazni after four days; Taliban attack on Ghazni brings America’s Afghanistan strategy into question.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan has become a significant menace against the West despite the fall of the group’s caliphate in Iraq and Syria, a top American commander warned this week.

The unprecedented air campaign against the Taliban’s opium and heroin trade, seen as the group’s primary economic engine and worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the narco-jihadis, has failed to meet to expectations according to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on Wednesday.

A wave of attacks perpetrated by the Taliban, recently deemed by a U.S. government-linked study as the world’s second most lethal terrorist group, killed more than 30 people in Afghanistan since Sunday. The killings came as negotiations reported get underway between the United States and the ruthless narco-jihadis to end to the nearly 17-year-old war.

Three NATO troops were killed after the Taliban carried out a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday near the town of Charakar.