Ayaz Gul VOA News September 10, 2018 ISLAMABAD — The Islamist Taliban in northern Afghanistan has captured a strategically important district near the border with Turkmenistan and threatened a provincial capital, killing dozens of Afghan troops in a series of battlefield attacks. During the past three days, the insurgents stepped up battlefield attacks across the country
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan September 9, 2018 KABUL — A suicide bomber on a motorcycle has blown himself up near a procession in the Afghan capital commemorating the death of a revered resistance leader, killing at least seven people, officials say. Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai told RFE/RL that more than 20 people were wounded
Ariana: At least five policemen were killed and three others injured after Taliban militants attacked Oba district in western Herat province, police said Sunday. Provincial police spokesman Abdul Ahad Walizada said the incident took place last night in Kishk village of Oba district. He added that two policemen were missing. Click here to read more
The National Interest: Kabul is a democracy in name only. Many non-Pashtuns see the political integration of the Taliban as an intra-Pashtun reconciliation process—not all-Afghan—that will deepen the Pashtunization of the power structure under Ghani, helping consolidate the ethnic group’s dominance. Under the national unity government agreement , Afghanistan was to have convened a loya jirga
William Gallo VOA News September 7, 2018 BAGRAM AIR BASE, AFGHANISTAN — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met Friday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other top Afghan officials, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. Ghani said at the meeting that stopping attacks by Afghan forces on NATO troops is a national priority. The encounters are also
Press TV September 6, 2018 An Afghan policeman has killed and burned the bodies of eight fellow officers before taking their weapons to join the Taliban militants. The insider attack took place in Takhar province, northeastern Afghanistan, on Thursday morning, provincial police spokesman Khalil Asir said. The policeman, he said, had opened fire on his colleagues
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 6, 2018 Officials say 11 soldiers of the Afghan National Army were killed in an ambush by Taliban fighters in Badghis Province, in northwestern Afghanistan. At least 13 militants were also killed in the fighting, which happened early on September 6. The same day, militants killed eight police officers in
Associated Press: In the past, Khalilzad has called on the U.S. to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, saying it harbors insurgents. The Trump administration has embraced a similar position, recently suspending $300 million in aid to Pakistan, saying it isn’t doing enough to eliminate Taliban safe havens on its territory. Click here to read more (external
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan September 5, 2018 Twin bombings at a wrestling training center in a predominately Shi’ite neighborhood of Afghanistan’s capital has killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 others, the Interior Ministry says. Officials said a suicide bomber on September 5 blew himself up inside the sports hall, which is located in Dasht-e Barchi
William Gallo VOA News September 5, 2018 NEW DELHI — Attempts to end the 17-year-old U.S.-led war in Afghanistan are gaining traction, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis insists. “Right now we have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage. It now has some framework,” Mattis told