NYT: Since the United States signed a troop withdrawal agreement in February with the Taliban, the militants have established new checkpoints along major highways, seizing control of long stretches of roadways, extorting millions of dollars a month from truckers and travelers and even displacing the police’s own efforts to extort bribes. Click here to read
Ayaz Gul VOA News October 26, 2020 ISLAMABAD – The United States said Monday it had conducted an airstrike in central Afghanistan, killing at least five Taliban insurgents. A military spokesman explained in a tweet the overnight action in Nerkh district in Wardak province was taken to defend Afghan security forces in line with a
Shapoor Saber Nilly Kohzad Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 13, 2020 HERAT, — Afghanistan’s western province of Herat was once home to a thriving Jewish community that has now all but vanished from the region. Its monuments and properties have either fallen into disrepair or disappeared completely, and murky rules of tenure and stewardship of
AP: Afghanistan’s dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to leave the country of their birth to escape the insecurity and a once-thriving community of as many as 250,000 members now counts fewer than 700. Click here to
Tolo News: A survey by a Kabul institution of 4,912 Afghans taken by phone conversations across the country indicates that 75 percent of the respondents prefer a republic-style government as an outcome of the ongoing peace negotiations in Doha. 75% of the respondents said they prefer a republic system, 7% said they prefer an emirate,
Tolo News: Laila, a transgender woman who lives in the city of Herat in western Afghanistan, says she faces many hardships in the conservative and male-dominated society, including physical abuse that has left her nearly blind in one eye. Laila is her name, but Abdul Saboor is the name given her at birth. She is
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 30, 2020 The United Nations says that more than 100,000 people fled conflict inside Afghanistan’s borders so far this year amid continued violence, despite an agreement between the United States and the Taliban intended to pave the way for intra-Afghan peace talks. The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
1TV: Afghan government said on Sunday it will not release 597 prisoners that are included in Taliban’s list of 5,000 prisoners they are demanding. The Office of Prisons Administration said that most of those prisoners are convicted of criminal offenses and moral crimes, including murder. Click here to read more (external link). Related Freed Taliban
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: Afghanistan is ranked the least happy country in the world, according to an annual survey released on Friday. The 2020 World Happiness Report, released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, showed that Afghanistan fell two places to the lowest position (153) of the list. The report ranks countries considering GDP per capital, social