Tag Archives: Afghanistan

A statue of a prominent anti-Taliban fighter killed by the group before they took power for the first time in the 1990s has been decapitated in Bamiyan city, residents said Tuesday. “We are not sure who has blown up the statue (of Abdul Ali Mazari), but there are different groups …

As they completed their takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban insisted that they would not revert to the brutal medieval rule that turned the hardline Islamist group into an international pariah in the late 1990s. Dubbed the Taliban 2.0 for their skilled use of social media, the militant’s image revamp is …

US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has called for an investigation into President Joe Biden’s policy towards Afghanistan, where the state – weakened by 20 years of occupation – collapsed before a resurgent Taliban, days after the withdrawal of most American troops from the country. McCarthy said in an …

The head of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party has called the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan the “biggest NATO debacle” since the founding of the US-led military alliance. “With the Taliban sweeping to power after NATO troops withdrew, it is evident that this engagement of the international community …

China says it is ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing on Monday that China welcomed the chance to deepen ties with Afghanistan. “We welcome this. China …

Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who oversaw the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989 after Moscow’s failed decade-long campaign there, said on Tuesday that NATO’s own deployment to the country had been doomed from the start. Gorbachev, 90, regarded the Soviet presence in Afghanistan as a political mistake that …

About 1,000 Russian troops have started a month-long exercise in Tajikistan, a week after concluding the previous drills, Interfax quoted officials from Russia’s central military district as saying on Tuesday. Russia has stepped up military activity and reinforced its base in Tajikistan as U.S.-led forces have pulled out of neighbouring …

A first German military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban takeover evacuated only seven people, the government said on Tuesday, due to chaos at the Afghan capital’s airport. Germany, which had the second-largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States, wants to airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual …

Joe Biden’s Saigon moment.

President Joe Biden will break his silence Monday on the US fiasco in Afghanistan with an address to the nation from the White House, as a lightning Taliban victory sent the Democrat’s domestic political fortunes reeling. Cutting short his planned vacation, Biden helicoptered back to Washington from the Camp David …

Russia has taken the United States to task over the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, saying the Taliban’s takeover of the country stems from America’s failure two decades after the invasion. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan should not be considered a transition. “The …

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) has criticized what he called President Joe Biden’s “botched exit” from Afghanistan after the Taliban entered the capital city of Kabul. The Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country on Sunday. It took the …

An Afghan military jet was shot down by Uzbek air defences as it tried to violate the border, Uzbekistan’s defence ministry was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency on Monday. The aircraft came down on Sunday after crossing the border into Uzbekistan, and its pilot ejected and survived, …

Russia’s embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported. Ghani, whose current whereabouts are unknown, …

Russia is in contact with Taliban officials via its embassy in Kabul, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan said on Monday, a day after the Afghan government collapsed and the capital fell to the Islamist insurgent group. “They are talking in Kabul. All contacts are being made there at …

At least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital, witnesses told Reuters. One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the …

Peace prevailed across Afghanistan on Monday, Taliban officials said, as the militants declared the war over a day after seizing the capital, while Western nations scrambled to evacuate their citizens from an increasingly chaotic Kabul airport. President Ashraf Ghani fled from the country on Sunday as the Islamists entered Kabul …

Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan says Moscow is ready to work with the future interim government in Afghanistan The time to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate authority has not come yet, Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan said on Sunday. At the moment, Moscow is ready to work with a …

Germany on Sunday shuttered its embassy in Kabul and prepared to send A400M military transport planes to Afghanistan to evacuate as many Germans and local Afghan helpers as possible after Taliban insurgents entered the Afghan capital. “We are doing everything to enable our citizens and our former local staff to …

As the Taliban continues to gain territory in Afghanistan, nations are quickly mobilizing to evacuate diplomatic staff in Kabul, fearing an eventual attack on the capital. President Biden announced on Saturday that approximately 5,000 U.S. troops will be deployed to Kabul to oversee the evacuation of U.S. diplomats as the …