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
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 25, 2019 An Afghan official says at least nine police officers have been killed by a Taliban ambush on their convoy in the country’s west. Abdul Samad Salehi, a member of the provincial council in Farah Province, said the ambush took place in Anardara district as the convoy was heading
1TV: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif admitted that Iran had also opened dialogue with the Taliban but said that the US push for a deal with the group was “seriously wrong.” “An attempt to exclude everybody and just talk to the Taliban has alienated the government, has alienated the region, has alienated everybody else and it
Ayaz Gul VOA News April 25, 2019 ISLAMABAD — Pakistan says it is “highly dismayed” at the recent surge in hostilities in Afghanistan “from all sides,” warning it would harm ongoing efforts to bring peace to the war-ravaged neighboring country. Prime Minister Imran Khan issued the statement Thursday as the United States makes diplomatic efforts to
Jeff Seldin VOA News April 24, 2019 Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report. WASHINGTON — A peace treaty to end more than 17 years of war in Afghanistan could usher in a new era of instability and erase many of the gains made by international reconstruction efforts, a key U.S. official cautioned Wednesday.
1TV: Civilian casualties have increased by 19 percent in Afghanistan, the country’s Independent Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday. A total of 3,032 civilians were killed while nearly 8,200 others were wounded during the last solar year 1397, the commission said in an annual report. The report attributed 53 percent of the casualties to the Taliban.