Atlantic Council: The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming international relations not just by straining relations among powerful states, but also by disrupting violent nonstate actors. Perhaps no major militant outfit has felt the impact as much as the Taliban. The group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, is either seriously ill with the virus or possibly dead. Sirajuddin Haqqani,
Ayaz Gul VOA News June 29, 2020 ISLAMABAD – A rocket attack on a crowded marketplace in Afghanistan’s volatile southern Helmand province killed at least 23 civilians and injured 15 others on Monday. Residents reportedly accused Afghan security forces of firing the rockets in Sangin district during clashes with the Taliban. The governor’s office in
BBC News: What are we to make of the reports that have surfaced in the past few days that Russian military intelligence agents were offering money to Taliban fighters to kill US and possibly other Western service personnel? How true are these reports? Can they be substantiated? And what is their real significance? For a
The National Interest: First and foremost… Pakistan should no longer allow its soil to be used as a safe-haven for Taliban leaders. After the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, the late Mulla Omar, founder of the Taliban, lived in Quetta and headed the so-called Quetta Shura. The Peshawar Shura has long supported the Haqqani Network,
Ken Bredemeier VOA NEWS June 28, 2020 WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he had never been told about reports that a Russian military intelligence unit was secretly offering bounties to Taliban militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers. Trump scoffed at a New York Times report that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded months ago
Ayaz Gul VOA NEWS June 27, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Afghan officials said Saturday a roadside bomb blast in Kabul has killed two members of the national human rights monitoring group. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said its female donor coordinator, 24-year-old Fatima Khalil, and a driver were traveling to their office in the
Reuters: U.S. intelligence has concluded that the Russian military offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops and other coalition forces, The New York Times reported Friday. Citing officials briefed on the matter, the Times said the United States determined months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts
Tolo News: Residents in the Afghan province of Maidan Wardak on Friday expressed deep concerns over a dramatic surge in the level of violence in their areas, saying Taliban groups have significantly increased their presence in the area and are frequently engaging in deadly battles with the Afghan security forces. Meanwhile, there are reports that
By Ayaz Gul VOA News June 25, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has come under severe criticism for saying in a nationally televised speech to the parliament Thursday that al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden had been “martyred.” Khan was highlighting foreign policy gains of his nearly two-year-old government, particularly improved ties with the
1TV: A 13-year-old child suicide bomber who was forced to carry out a suicide attack by the Taliban militants surrendered himself to the police in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province. The child, identified as Syed Mukhtar, threw his suicide vest into river before surrendering himself, a spokesman for provincial police said. Click here to read more