RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan June 2, 2020 Taliban officials have denied a report that its leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, died after contracting the coronavirus. Foreign Policy magazine, citing unnamed Taliban officials, reported on June 1 that Mullah Akhundzada contracted COVID-19 and possibly died while receiving treatment abroad. Foreign Policy quoted Mawlawi Mohammad Ali Jan Ahmad, a senior
1TV: Relations between the Taliban, especially the Haqqani Network, and Al-Qaida remain close despite the former signing a peace deal with the United States, a recent UN report said. Al-Qaida has 400 to 600 operatives active in 12 Afghan provinces and is running training camps in the east of the country, according to the report.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 31, 2020 By Frud Bezhan After 18 years of fighting, the Afghan war is at a deadly stalemate. Afghanistan is divided up among government forces backed by international troops, the Taliban and its militant allies, the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, and a collection of smaller foreign terrorist groups. The United
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 31, 2020 The Afghan government and the Taliban have released more captives as part of a major prisoner swap ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year war. The prisoner exchange is part of a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February that called on the Afghan government to release
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 30, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Afghan officials said Saturday a bomb exploded and killed a journalist and a driver of a private television channel in the capital, Kabul. Six other people were injured. The victims, employees of Khurshid TV, were traveling on a minibus when an improvised explosive device attached to
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 29, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Authorities in Afghanistan said Friday the Taliban has killed at least 14 border security forces and injured several others in eastern Paktia province. The Afghan Defense Ministry said insurgents assaulted outposts in Paktia’s Dand-e-Patan district, which borders Pakistan, late Thursday, but Afghan border forces repulsed the
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan May 28, 2020 A Taliban delegation has arrived in Kabul for talks over a prisoner swap, just hours after Afghan officials blamed the militant group for a deadly attack in the country’s north. The prisoner exchange is part of a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February that called on the Afghan government
By Ayaz Gul VOA News May 28, 2020 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – President Donald Trump has renewed his resolve to “bring our soldiers back home” from Afghanistan, publicly questioning again the goal of the current U.S. military mission to the war-torn country. Trump reiterated his intention amid reports that the ongoing U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan
1TV: US President Donald Trump wants to complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by election in November, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Senior US military officials are set to brief Trump in the coming days on options for pulling all American troops out of Afghanistan, with one possible timeline for withdrawing forces before the
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 27, 2020 Afghanistan’s flagging peace process was on the verge of collapse following weeks of devastating militant attacks, mounting public anger, and the halt of a major prisoner swap. But a brief cease-fire between the government and the Taliban has breathed new life into efforts to negotiate an