By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi February 26, 2026 Several explosions have rocked Kabul just hours after Afghanistan and Pakistan traded strikes on each other in their volatile mountain border region as days of escalating tensions boiled over with both sides claiming to have killed dozens of militants and security forces. Local sources told RFE/RL’s
Amu: Afghanistan has become a “graveyard for human rights,” the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said on Thursday, warning that an expanding body of Taliban decrees is entrenching repression, particularly against women and girls. Speaking at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, Volker Turk said a “cascade of edicts and
8am: Recent Pakistani airstrikes in parts of Nangarhar and Paktika provinces have once again raised a fundamental question: when a state conducts operations across the border under the banner of “counterterrorism,” yet the result is the killing of women and children and the destruction of civilian homes, how should this situation be assessed under international
Amu: Clashes have broken out between Taliban forces and Pakistani troops in several border districts of eastern Nangarhar province, local sources said. Residents said fighting occurred in the districts of Torkham, Nazyan and Achin, areas along the frontier with Pakistan. The exchanges in Nazyan and Achin involved both light and heavy weapons, the sources said.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 22, 2026 Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said they are preparing “an appropriate and calculated response” to Pakistani air strikes that killed at least 18 people in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces. Afghan officials said “dozens of people” were injured in the overnight attacks on February 22, “including women and children.” Pakistan said
Afghanistan International: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has again urged the Taliban to rein in militant groups operating from Afghan territory, warning that Islamabad would not hesitate to carry out further airstrikes inside Afghanistan if no action is taken. Speaking to France 24, Asif alleged that attacks inside Pakistan are carried out with Taliban support.
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has approved the deployment of 1,000 fighters to protect gold mining operations in Badakhshan province, according to the Taliban-appointed governor. In recent months, clashes have occurred between local residents and Taliban-linked mining companies in the province. Click here to read more (externa link).
Amu: Taliban have burned around 600 musical instruments in Parwan and Laghman provinces in the latest enforcement of their sweeping ban on music. The Taliban directorate vice and virtue in Parwan said it had set fire to about 500 instruments that had been collected over the past year from the provincial capital and surrounding districts.
Special Eurasia: Tehran’s potential recognition of the Taliban is a strategic security hedge designed to stabilise its eastern frontier and prevent Afghanistan from being used as a platform for hostile intelligence or militant activity. Deepening trade interdependence, energy exports, and border free-trade zones are embedding Afghanistan structurally into Iran’s economy, transforming geopolitical risk into geo-economic
Tyla: A new penal code has been published by Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, which will legalise acts of physical punishment against women. The alarming news comes in light of Hibatullah Akhundzada – the Supreme Leader of the Islamist extreme group – signing a 90-page criminal code which outlines different degrees of legal penalisation depending on