Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 18, 2019 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has condemned as “barbaric” an attack on a wedding party in Kabul that killed at least 63 people and left 182 others injured and called an extraordinary security meeting to discuss ways to avoid such “lapses.” The radical militant group Islamic State (IS) has
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 17, 2019 Afghanistan’s Taliban says the killing of the brother of their leader in an August 16 bomb attack in Pakistan will not derail peace talks with the United States. Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada was not in the mosque when the bomb went off but his younger brother, Hafiz Ahmadullah,
Tolo News: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hizb-e-Islami party who runs for president, says the incumbent government is “weak” and cannot decide on major issues in the country and that it will “collapse” if the US forces leave the war-ravaged Afghanistan. “There is no doubt in US forces withdrawal [from Afghanistan]. They will definitely leave [the country],”
By Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 14, 2019 In the fall of 2010, U.S. officials secretly met a young Taliban representative outside the southern German city of Munich. Tayyib Agha, a member of the militant group’s political wing, presented the U.S. diplomats with a road map for a negotiated end to the war.
Stars and Stripes: Members of the first Army infantry brigade to be issued pocket-sized drones are putting the devices to work in southern Afghanistan. Paratroopers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, used the Black Hornet Personal Reconnaissance System last week to support a foot patrol in Kandahar province, a statement by the division
By Farangis Najibullah Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 12, 2019 A little-known, 31-year-old Tajik man who grew up in a Dushanbe suburb has emerged as a unit leader of the Islamic State (IS) affiliate in Afghanistan as the extremist group tries to expand its footprint in the war-torn country. A recent report by the UN
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 12, 2019 U.S. and Taliban negotiators will consult their leaders following an eighth round of peace talks to end the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan, the Taliban says. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha, ended early on August 12, adding: “It was long and
Tolo News: Afghans around the country spent the first day of Eid al-Adha in peace as the Ministry of Interior says twelve security incidents were prevented on Sunday. Residents of different provinces called on the Taliban to quit violence and celebrate Eid together with other Afghans in a peaceful environment. Click here to read more (external
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan August 11, 2019 KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has rejected foreign interference and called for the presidential election to be held next month as planned, amid talks between the United States and the Taliban aimed at bringing the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan to an end. “Without a legitimate
Tolo News: A retired US Army general David Petraeus has suggested that the United States should not abandon Afghanistan as it did Iraq by withdrawing all its troops from the country. In an article published in the Wall Street Journal and co-written by Vance Serchuk, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, Mr. Petraeus says the history