The death toll from Pakistani military airstrikes in the eastern Afghanistan provinces of Khost and Kunar has risen to at least 47, officials said on Sunday. “Forty-one civilians, mainly women, and children, were killed and 22 others were wounded in airstrikes by Pakistani forces near the Durand line in Khost …
Read More »Taliban issues warning over civilians killed by Pakistan rockets
Pakistan rockets and aerial raids on two different Afghan provinces resulted in civilian casualties, officials say. Taliban authorities warned Pakistan on Saturday after five children and a woman were killed in Afghanistan in alleged rocket attacks by the Pakistani forces in a pre-dawn assault along the border. “The Islamic Emirate …
Read More »Rockets fired by Pakistan’s forces kill six Afghans: Reports
At least five children and a woman were killed in an eastern Afghan province when Pakistani military forces fired rockets along the border in a pre-dawn assault Saturday, an official and a resident said. Since the Taliban seized power last year in Afghanistan, border tensions between the neighbors have risen, …
Read More »At Least 2 Dead After Bombing in Pakistan’s Second City, Lahore (Video)
Police in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, said Thursday a powerful bomb attached to a motorcycle was detonated in a busy marketplace, killing at least two people and injuring at least 20 others. Police officials say the bomb went off in the eastern city’s Anarkali bazaar, known for selling Indian goods. …
Read More »US appoints envoy to defend Afghan women’s rights
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday will name former U.S. official Rina Amiri as a special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, two sources familiar with the decision said. Amiri has spent two decades advising governments, the United Nations, and think tanks on issues related to …
Read More »Afghan Taliban stop Pakistan army from fencing international border
Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan disrupted the erecting of a security fence by the Pakistani military along the border between the two countries, Afghan officials said on Wednesday. Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600 km (1,615 miles) border despite protestations from Kabul, which has always contested the British-era boundary demarcation …
Read More »Islamic countries pledge fund to stave off Afghanistan ‘chaos’
Islamic countries pledged on Sunday to set up a humanitarian trust fund for Afghanistan as, with millions facing hunger and a harsh winter setting in, Pakistan’s prime minister warned of chaos if the worsening emergency was not urgently addressed. The crisis is causing mounting alarm but the international response has …
Read More »Afghan Taliban leaders appeal for help as migrant crisis looms
Senior Taliban officials appealed on Saturday for international help to combat a deepening economic crisis that has fuelled fears of another refugee exodus from Afghanistan. The comments, at a special meeting to mark the U.N.’s international migrants day, underlined the new Islamist Taliban government’s push to engage with the world …
Read More »Karzai ‘invited’ Taliban to stop chaos in Afghanistan
The Taliban didn’t take the Afghan capital — they were invited, says the man who issued the invitation. In an Associated Press interview, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered some of the first insights into the secret and sudden departure of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — and how he came …
Read More »Afghans facing avalanche of hunger, destitution: WFP
The UN’s food agency has warned that a failing economy could plunge Afghanistan into catastrophe next year. A spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) said during a briefing in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that Afghanistan’s fragile economy was on the brink of collapse. “The spiraling economic …
Read More »Bus bomb kills two in Afghan capital: Taliban
Two people were killed and four wounded in separate bomb explosions in the west of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Friday, the Taliban said. “Two civilians have been killed and three others were wounded” when a bomb exploded on a minibus in the Dasht-e-Barchi district of Kabul, the Taliban’s interior ministry …
Read More »Taliban leader pleads for help in first address
The leader of the Taliban has delivered his first televised address since the group took power in Afghanistan in mid-August. He vowed not to interfere in other countries and asked for international aid. “We assure all the countries that we will not interfere in their internal affairs and we want …
Read More »Taliban reveals agenda of upcoming talks with Washington
The Taliban plans to discuss American recognition of its interim government, the unfreezing of assets, and Afghanistan’s reconstruction in upcoming talks with the US in the Qatari capital Doha, the group’s spokesman has revealed. In an interview with Sputnik news agency on Wednesday, Suhail Shaheen said the militant group is …
Read More »Taliban sign $450m deal with Australian group for cannabis center: Taliban spokesman
The Taliban have signed a deal with Australian company Cpharm that wants to set up a cannabis processing center in Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesperson said on Twitter. A contract has been signed and the project will be up and running within days, Taliban Press Director Qari Saeed Khosty said. Afghanistan’s …
Read More »Taliban to start paying overdue salaries of government employees
Afghanistan’s Taliban administration will begin paying the overdue salaries of government workers from Saturday, officials said. Thousands of Afghan government workers are owed at least three months of salary, one of the many crises faced by the Taliban since the extremist group took over the country in August. “The finance …
Read More »Blast in Afghan capital wounds two
A bomb blast in the Afghan capital of Kabul wounded two people on Monday, the Taliban’s interior ministry said, just two days after a similar explosion that was claimed by the Islamic State militant group. Both devices were of a magnetic type attached to vehicles that have become common in …
Read More »At least 6 dead, 7 injured in Blast hits Shi’ite area of Afghan capital Kabul
A magnetic bomb attached to a passenger minivan exploded in a heavily Shi’ite area of the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, causing an unknown number of casualties, Taliban officials and local residents said. A recent spate of such attacks has heaped more pressure on the Taliban rulers, who took power …
Read More »Qatar to represent US interests in Afghanistan: Official
The United States and Qatar have agreed that Qatar will represent the diplomatic interests of the United States in Afghanistan, a senior US official told Reuters, an important signal of potential direct engagement between Washington and Kabul in the future after two decades of war. Qatar will sign an arrangement …
Read More »Blast reported in mosque in Afghanistan, several wounded – local residents
An explosion hit a mosque in the Spin Ghar district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, wounding at least 12 people including the imam of the mosque, local residents said. Atal Shinwari, a resident of the area, said the blast occurred at around 1:30 p.m. when explosives apparently located in …
Read More »Taliban-appointed foreign minister visits Pakistan
Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign affairs chief has embarked on a visit to neighboring Pakistan as the Taliban rulers seek regional and global recognition. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that this week’s visit was a follow-up to a visit last month by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to …
Read More »