Ayaz Gul VOA News May 5, 2019 ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani telephoned Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday and the two leaders discussed ongoing Afghan peace efforts, security as and bilateral economic cooperation. Afghan and Pakistani officials said Ghani accepted Khan’s invitation to visit Islamabad “for a comprehensive exchange of views on all
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 5, 2019 ISLAMABAD — A Taliban suicide car bomb-and-gun attack against a provincial police headquarters in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 13 security personnel and injured more than 55 other people. Afghan officials said the assault in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, began around midday Sunday with a Taliban
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 4, 2019 ISLAMABAD — Authorities in Afghanistan said Saturday coalition airstrikes in an eastern province have killed up to 50 Islamic State militants, while Taliban insurgents have killed at least seven government forces in a western district. The Defense Ministry said the overnight airstrikes were carried out in coordination with Afghan
Tolo News: Journalists said security threats and lack of access to information are among big challenges for them. An official of Ministry of Information and Culture said that at least 100 media outlets have canceled their licenses over the past two years as the World Press Freedom Day was marked in Kabul on Friday. According to
Air Force Times: A program to train Afghan attack pilots has been ended after the airmen kept going absent without leave, or AWOL, while training in the United States. More than 40 percent of the Afghan Air Force students enrolled in the U.S.-based training program to fly the AC-208 Combat Caravan, a light attack combat aircraft, went AWOL, according to a
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 3, 2019 ISLAMABAD — An Afghan grand assembly, or loya jirga, ended Friday with the delegates in Kabul demanding peace with the Taliban, as President Ashraf Ghani promised to free 175 Taliban prisoners ahead of Ramadan, which begins in a few days. The Afghan Taliban, for their part, responded harshly to
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 2, 2019 Qatar has appointed an ambassador to Afghanistan for the first time, as the Persian Gulf nation hosts peace talks aimed at ending the nearly 18-year Afghan war. Doha, the Qatari capital, hosts the Taliban’s semiofficial political office and has been the location of the ongoing talks between the
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 1, 2019 ISLAMABAD — The United States and the Taliban have begun a new round of negotiations in Doha, Qatar, in a bid to advance peace efforts in Afghanistan and to urge the insurgent group to participate in an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue. U.S. special reconciliation envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, led the U.S.
Ayaz Gul VOA News May 1, 2019 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan says a “terrorist” raid Wednesday from across the Afghanistan border killed at least three soldiers and injured seven others. The military’s media wing said security forces were building a border fence in the remote North Waziristan district when “a group of 60-70 terrorists” from the Afghan
Jeff Seldin VOA News May 1, 2019 WASHINGTON — The U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan is no longer collecting data showing the Afghan government steadily losing ground to the Taliban, telling a U.S. government watchdog the information was “of limited decision-making value.” The so-called district-level stability assessments, which measure the number of the country’s districts under