Ayaz Gul VOA News March 25, 2020 ISLAMABAD – Officials in Afghanistan say heavily armed suicide bombers Wednesday stormed a minority Sikh worship place in Kabul, killing at least 25 worshippers and injuring at least eight others. The local television station TOLO TV said at least 11 members of the minority community were also injured.
RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan March 24, 2020 KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says a cut in aid from the United States will not affect “key” areas of daily life in the war-torn country even as it battles to stem the coronavirus outbreak. The U.S. State Department announced late on March 23 that it was
Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 23, 2020 In the mid-1990s, U.S. oil company Unocal attempted to secure a gas-pipeline deal with the Taliban, which had seized control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, after a devastating civil war. It was the United States’ first attempt to forge a partnership with the fundamentalist Taliban regime,
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News March 23, 2020 ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a previously unannounced visit to Kabul Monday to try to resolve a political dispute between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah. The dispute threatens to derail a deal that the United States and the Taliban signed last
Ariana: Zarifa Ghafari Mayor of Maidan Shahr, the capital of Maidan Wardak province, has survived a gun attack in Kabul, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Sunday. Zarifa Ghafari – the first Afghan female mayor – was honored by the US Secretary of State with the International Women of Courage Award on Wednesday on
By Jeff Seldin VOA News March 20, 2020 Almost a week since the Afghan Taliban trumpeted the defeat of the Islamic State in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, U.S. officials remain wary, though they concede the terror group’s grip on territory in rural areas appears to be slipping. The latest assessment is consistent with U.S. appraisals of previous
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 20, 2020 At least 24 Afghan security forces were killed early on March 20 in an insider attack on their base in southern Zabul Province, officials say. Several “infiltrators” opened fire on their comrades as they slept, Zabul Governor Rahmatullah Yarmal said, in one of the deadliest attacks since the
Ayaz Gul VOA News March 19, 2020 ISLAMABAD – The United States is calling on warring sides in Afghanistan to start a prisoner swap without further delay, citing urgency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. reconciliation envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in a series of tweets Wednesday appeared frustrated at the delay in the next
Tolo News: The US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, is back in Kabul and has met with Abdullah Abdullah, close to aide to Abdullah said on Wednesday as election crisis prevails in the country. Tackling the ongoing political crisis and the peace process were on the agenda of the meeting between Abdullah and
Michael Hughes: Legitimacy has long been king in Afghanistan. Without political legitimacy, there is chaos. This may be true in most countries but, as per history, the correlation in Afghanistan is stronger than in most. Hence, it is no accident that Afghanistan has been mired in civil war since the delicate ethno-sectarian-tribal balance was disrupted