VOA News May 16, 2017 WASHINGTON — The world’s number one opium-producing country, Afghanistan, is braced for an exploding poppy harvest this year, as farmers are cultivating the illicit crop in areas where it has never grown before. “Unfortunately, the narcotics production is on the rise this year,” Javed Qaem, Afghan deputy counternarcotics minister, told international
Press TV / April 30, 2017 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the US-led military alliance is considering boosting its troop strength in war-ravaged Afghanistan. The NATO chief told Welt am Sonntag, a German newspaper, on Sunday that the 28-nation alliance is expected to make a decision by June on a possible troop increase in the
Michael Hughes: The White House seems to be singing from a different song sheet about the situation in Sangin than America’s military brass, evidenced by its reluctance to rubber stamp the Pentagon’s position that the key district in southern Helmand province was not overrun by the Taliban recently. This could be a case of simple miscommunication
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, March 23 (Xinhua) — Afghan government forces have evacuated the strategically important Sangin district in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, after increasing pressure by Taliban militants, member of Helmand’s Provincial Council, Bashir Ahmad Shakir said Thursday. “The government forces in the wake of mounting pressure by Taliban rebels finally evacuated Sangin district early
Ayaz Gul VOA News March 19, 2017 ISLAMABAD — At least three American soldiers were wounded Sunday when an Afghan solider opened fire at them in southern Afghanistan. The incident happened during a training exercise at a military base in the Helmand province. The U.S. soldiers are receiving medical care, said NATO’s Resolute Support mission in
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 12, 2017 At least 31 Taliban militants, including a local commander, have been killed and nine others injured in a military operation carried by security forces in southern Afghanistan, government officials said. The operation took place in the province of Helmand during the past 24 hours, the provincial government’s media
Press TV February 28, 2017 At least 11 Afghan policemen have been killed by a member of the Taliban militant group who had infiltrated the ranks of the police force in southern Afghanistan. The assault reportedly took place late on Monday night in the vicinity of the 2nd police district in Lashkargah City, the provincial
Al Jazeera: It was called Operation Moshtarak and it was supposed to be the defining moment of the Afghanistan conflict – an all-out assault by coalition forces on the Taliban-held city of Marjah in Helmand province. Long regarded as a “festering sore” by senior NATO officers, Marjah was seen as one of the last insurgent-controlled areas
Press TV February 12, 2017 Nearly two dozen civilians were killed in recent airstrikes by US forces in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, an Afghan official says. Jabar Qahraman, Afghanistan’s presidential envoy for security in Helmand, said on Sunday that the airstrikes were carried out against Taliban militants in Sangin district of Helmand during the late hours of
Ayaz Gul VOA News February 11, 2017 ISLAMABAD — A suicide car bombing Saturday killed at least seven people and wounded many others in Afghanistan’s embattled southern province of Helmand, officials said. The Taliban insurgency took responsibility for the bombing, according to a spokesman for the group, who claimed army officers and soldiers were among the