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 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.
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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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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.
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.
Read moreThe Taliban launched a large-scale attack on Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s main cities, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 75 others, government officials said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America’s longest war.
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Eighteen years after the assassination of revered anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, his only son is hoping to continue the mission by jumping into Afghanistan’s chaotic political fray.
Read moreU.S. and Taliban representatives held negotiations in Doha on Sunday, an American source close to the process said, as potentially decisive talks to enable Washington to draw down its military in Afghanistan stretched into the evening.
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The United States envoy negotiating with the Taliban for an end to America’s longest war departed Tuesday for Qatar to resume talks, the State Department said, amid concerns about a growing threat by an Islamic State affiliate.
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At least 14 people were killed and 145 wounded in a massive Taliban bomb blast Wednesday as fresh violence gripped Kabul even as insurgents appear to be closing in on a peace deal with the United States.
Read moreWith momentum apparently building for a breakthrough in talks between Washington and the Taliban, younger Afghans whose lives have been overshadowed by nearly 18 years of war are skeptical any deal will bring them peace.
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A roadside bomb tore through a bus in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 32 people, including children, a provincial official said.
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