8am: The viral video in which a girl claims that Saeed Khosti, the former spokesperson of the Taliban-occupied Ministry of Interior, raped her, has spiked public outcry. The footage in which Elaha Delawarzi, 24, claims that Saeed Khosti raped her, has sparked strong reactions among social media users. One of the users posted that the
VOA News: WASHINGTON — A year after the last U.S. troops left Kabul, there appears to be little consensus on whether the world, and the West in particular, is any safer from the terrorist groups that call Afghanistan home. One of the most polarizing developments in the debate came on July 31 of this year,
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 11, 2022 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — A suicide bombing Thursday at a religious seminary in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, killed a prominent Taliban cleric known for his fiery speeches against Islamic State militants. A spokesman for the ruling Taliban confirmed the assassination of Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani in what he said was a “brutal
Akmal Dawi VOA News August 4, 2022 Sirajuddin Haqqani has not responded to allegations that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri lived under his protection in Kabul and he has not appeared in public since al-Zawahiri’s killing was reported, but Sirajuddin Haqqani still carries a $10 million bounty on his head for his alleged terrorist activities. The
TRT World: Factional rift and competing interests to move up the power ladder are among the key factors pushing the former insurgent group to the brink of implosion. There are four major divisions in the Taliban administration. The first is between the movements’ pragmatist and hardline leaders. The second division is between the Taliban fighters
Ayaz Gul VOA News August 4, 2022 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Afghanistan’s Taliban administration claimed Thursday that it had “no knowledge” that slain al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was residing in Kabul and warned of unspecified “consequences” if the United States breached Afghan territorial sovereignty in the future. The official declaration in local and English languages came several
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi Abubakar Siddique August 2, 2022 For years, Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri was believed to be hiding in the remote, mountainous areas straddling Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. But in an ironic twist, the terrorist network leader was killed by a U.S. drone strike in a posh neighborhood in central Kabul that was largely
Anita Powell, Ayaz Gul VOA News August 2, 2022 WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD — Senior White House officials say they have concluded with “high confidence” that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was the only one killed in a weekend drone strike in Kabul, and that they were aware that senior members of the Taliban’s Haqqani network knew he was in
Ariana: Anas Haqqani said this week that the Haqqani Network never existed and that when he was arrested in Qatar, he had been a harmless student on holiday. In 2014, when he was 20, Haqqani was arrested in Qatar, tried in Kabul and sentenced to death. According information obtained by Der Spiegel, the only reason
Michael Hughes: Islamabad had waited patiently for more than two decades for the Taliban to recapture Kabul and ensure Afghanistan would serve as “strategic depth” if Pakistan needed territory and resources in a war against India. The Pakistanis assumed the Taliban regime would take a hostile posture toward New Delhi, especially given India’s past support