Mourners from Afghanistan’s minority Shia community buried their dead on Saturday after a suicide attack claimed by ISIS killed more than 60 people. A gravedigger in the Shia cemetery overlooking the northern city of Kunduz told AFP they had handled 62 bodies, and reports suggested a final toll of up …
Read More »ISIS claims responsibility for the deadliest attack on Afghanistan since US withdrawal
ISIS claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Afghanistan which targeted Shia Muslims in a mosque on Friday. The attack killed at least 46 people and injured more than 140 in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province. The extremist group said that an ISIS suicide bomber “detonated an explosive vest amid a …
Read More »Suicide bomber kills 46, wounded more than 140 at Afghanistan Shia mosque – state news agency
A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunduz province on Friday, killing 46 people and wounding more than 140, the state-run Bakhtar news agency said. Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the mosque that is used by people from the minority Shi’ite Muslim community. No group …
Read More »Taliban arrest four ISIS members north of Afghanistan’s capital
The Taliban arrested four ISIS members north of the Afghan capital, the group’s chief spokesman said Wednesday, and witnesses said two Taliban fighters were shot dead in the northeast, raising the specter of all-out conflict. Zabihullah Mujahid said an operation was carried out Tuesday night by special unit forces in …
Read More »Afghanistan asks UN mission to pay power bills before country goes dark
Afghanistan’s state power company has appealed to a United Nations-led mission to give $90 million to settle unpaid bills to Central Asian suppliers before electricity gets cut off for the country given that the three-month deadline for payments has passed. Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in mid-August, electricity …
Read More »Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras: Rights group
Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, most of them Afghan soldiers who had surrendered to the group, a prominent rights group said Tuesday. The killings took place in the village of Kahor in Daykundi province in central Afghanistan on August 30, according to an investigation by Amnesty International. Eleven …
Read More »Macron: G20 must send Taliban clear message on price of recognition
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said the forthcoming G20 summit must send a clear message to Afghanistan’s Taliban on the conditions for international recognition. In an interview with France Inter radio station broadcast on Tuesday, Macron said those conditions must include equality for women, access to foreign humanitarian operations, and non-cooperation …
Read More »Taliban say forces destroy Islamic State cell hours after Kabul blast
Taliban government forces destroyed an Islamic State cell in the north of Kabul late on Sunday in a prolonged assault that broke the calm of a normally quiet area of the capital with hours of explosions and gunfire, officials and local residents said. With Afghanistan’s economy close to collapse and …
Read More »Children dying of malnutrition in Afghanistan: Officials
Children are dying of starvation in Afghanistan, local and international sources said Saturday, following warnings that a million youngsters there could face life-threatening malnutrition by the end of the year. In Ghor, one of the affected provinces, at least 17 children among those who made it to hospital have died …
Read More »Taliban disperse women protesters with gunfire in Kabul
The Taliban on Thursday violently cracked down on a small women’s rights demonstration, firing shots into the air and pushing back protesters, AFP journalists witnessed. A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the right for girls to return to secondary school after the …
Read More »Taliban ask airlines to resume international flights to Afghanistan
The Taliban government in Afghanistan appealed on Sunday for international flights to be resumed, promising full cooperation with airlines and saying that problems at Kabul airport had been resolved. The statement from the foreign affairs ministry comes as the new administration has stepped up efforts to open up the country …
Read More »Two security forces killed in landmine blast in Afghanistan
According to the latest reports, two security forces were killed by a roadside bomb in the city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Afghan sources said that two Afghan security forces have been killed in the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province. The incident occurred after a vehicle belonging to intelligence forces collided …
Read More »Hundreds protest in Kabul to demand the release of Afghan foreign reserves
Hundreds of people protested in Kabul on Friday, demanding that the US release billions of dollars in central bank reserves blocked outside Afghanistan as the new Taliban government struggles to contain a deepening economic crisis. The well-organized demonstration, featuring banners with messages printed in English, came as Taliban officials stepped …
Read More »Afghan diplomats call on international community to deny Taliban recognition
A group of Afghan diplomats from Kabul’s deposed government issued on Wednesday a joint statement calling on the leaders of the international community to deny the Taliban formal recognition and blames them for leaving a nation “at the mercy of a terrorist group.” The statement was signed by 24 officials …
Read More »Biden top aides discouraged abrupt Afghanistan pullout, book says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for a slower drawdown to encourage negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, according to “Peril.” President Joe Biden’s top cabinet members unsuccessfully tried to dissuade him from pulling all US troops from Afghanistan, hoping he would …
Read More »Hundreds protest in Afghanistan’s Kandahar against Taliban evictions
Hundreds of protesters from a neighborhood populated by former Afghan army servicemen marched in Kandahar Tuesday against plans by the Taliban to evict them from their homes. Residents of Zara Ferqa, a suburb made up of government housing and ramshackle huts, said they had been ordered to leave by the …
Read More »Top Democrat on Senate committee slams Biden admin, US withdrawal from Afghanistan
“A full accounting of the US response to this crisis is not complete without the Pentagon, especially when it comes to understanding the complete collapse of the US-trained and funded Afghan military,” Menendez said. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday blasted the Biden administration over its …
Read More »Senior Taliban member says women should not work alongside men
Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, a senior figure in the ruling Taliban said earlier this week, a position which, if formally implemented, would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies, and beyond. Waheed Ullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban …
Read More »Top US diplomat justifies America’s defeat in Afghanistan
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is defending US “legacy” in Afghanistan after American forces’ defeat in the country and the swift takeover of the Taliban. The US top diplomat appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to justify the Biden administration’s chaotic handling of withdrawal from the war-ravaged country. …
Read More »UN Secretary-General says more than $1 bln in aid pledges made for Afghanistan
Donors have pledged more than a billion dollars to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiraled since the Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the specter of a mass exodus. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was impossible to say how much of the money …
Read More »