Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Tuesday that his government has released three prominent Taliban figures in an effort to get the insurgents to free an American and an Australian professor they abducted in 2016 and have held captive for more than three years.
Read moreSporting a black quiff and sideburns, Ahmad Zahir sang of love and heartbreak in liberal 1970s Kabul — a city now plagued by war and suffering, but where the popularity of Afghanistan’s “Elvis” remains undimmed 40 years after his death.
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In some paintings, the wounds are plain to see: an arm or leg lost to war. In others, the injuries that U.S. veterans suffered are hidden from view.
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The workers were sleeping on the mountainside where they had spent a long day harvesting pine nuts in eastern Afghanistan. Some were in tents, others lay outside under the stars, when the U.S. airstrike tore into them.
Read moreThe Taliban met with a U.S. envoy in the Pakistani capital, a Taliban official said Saturday, the first such encounter since President Donald Trump announced a month ago that a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan’s 18-year war was dead.
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As Afghans await the results of a presidential election roiled by Taliban threats, the government used its platform at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday to tell the insurgents: “Join us in peace, or we will continue to fight.”
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Presidential elections are over, and Afghanistan now faces a period of uncertainty and possible political chaos. Saturday’s vote was marred by violence, Taliban threats and widespread allegations of mismanagement and abuse.
Read moreAccusations of fraud and misconduct, more than scores of Taliban attacks, threatened to overwhelm the results of Saturday’s vote for the next president of Afghanistan, denying the winner legitimacy and frustrating efforts to restart peace talks to end 18 years of war.
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Torn between fear, frustration and a sense of duty, Ahmad is undecided about defying Taliban warnings not to vote in this weekend’s Afghan presidential election. He has good reason to think twice: His index finger was chopped off by Taliban members after he voted in the presidential election five years ago.
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Anti-Taliban raids by Afghan forces backed by U.S. airstrikes killed at least 40 civilians attending a wedding party in the southern Helmand province, Afghan officials said.
Read morePolice in Afghanistan are one of the country’s most-criticized security forces, denigrated as corrupt and inept. Yet Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi says police are also the hardest hit, taking 70% of the casualties among government forces, dozens of whom die each day in attacks by Taliban and Islamic State insurgents.
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A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens near a campaign rally for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, and warned of more violence before the elections.
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In light of the recent breakdown in peace talks between the U.S. and Taliban to end America’s longest war, most Americans think sending troops into Afghanistan 18 years ago was not a mistake, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired John Bolton, his third national security adviser, after months of disagreement over the direction of foreign policy.
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The Taliban on Tuesday vowed to continue fighting against U.S. forces in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump said talks with the insurgents were “dead,” and said Washington would regret abandoning negotiations.
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With a few tweets, President Donald Trump upended nearly a year of U.S.-Taliban negotiations on ending America’s longest war. He “called off” the talks and canceled a planned secret meeting between him and Taliban leaders at Camp David, set for Sunday, just days before the 9/11 anniversary.
Read moreSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that Taliban “overreached” with a car bomb attack in Kabul that killed an American soldier, leading President Donald Trump to call off closely-held Afghanistan peace talks planned for Camp David.
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Taliban loyalists are cheering the prospect of a deal with the United States that after 18 years of grueling conflict will see “defeated” American “invaders” finally go home.
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Another Taliban suicide car bomb rocked Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 10 civilians in a diplomatic area that includes the U.S. Embassy — the second such attack this week, as the Afghan government warned that a preliminary U.S.-Taliban deal on ending America’s longest war was moving dangerously quickly.
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The Taliban on Tuesday defended their suicide bombing of an international compound in the Afghan capital that killed at least 16 civilians and wounded 119 people, just hours after a U.S. envoy said he and the militant group had reached a deal “in principle” to end America’s longest war.
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