U.S. defense chief Mark Esper visiting Afghanistan to assess the way ahead
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday, where stalled peace talks with the Taliban and persistent violent attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration's pledge to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops. Esper told ...
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. Only hours before the Sept. 19 strike, the ...
Afghanistan to Taliban: Peace or 'we will continue to fight'
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." Afghanistan was not the only country ...
Afghan polls set to see big drop in voter numbers amid Taliban threat and lack of interest
At least 2.2 million people voted in Afghanistan's presidential election with more votes to come, the election commission head Maulana Abdullah said on Sunday, indicating a very low turnout that could mar the result. Tight security ensured the election took place on Saturday in relative ...
Afghans vote in presidential election despite attacks by insurgents on polling stations
Afghans voted in presidential elections amid tight security Saturday even as insurgents attacked polling centers in a series of blasts and clashes across the country that left at least two people dead. The first-round vote marks the culmination of a bloody election campaign that, despite ...
Pakistan's Imran Khan presses Trump to seek Taliban and Kashmir deals
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday pressed U.S. President Donald Trump to restart talks with Afghanistan's Taliban and said Washington has a "duty" to calm the Kashmir standoff with India. "Stability in Afghanistan means stability in Pakistan," Khan said at the start of a ...
40 civilians at wedding reported killed in anti-Taliban raid backed by U.S. airstrikes
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. The civilian deaths in Sunday night's raids on Taliban hideouts further rattled Afghanistan amid an upsurge in violence that's ...
At least four killed as suicide bomber and gunmen attack Afghan government building
At least four people were killed and a dozen injured when gunmen stormed a crowded government building in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday following a suicide bombing, with desperate survivors leaping from windows to escape the fighting, witnesses and officials said. Security forces rushed to the scene ...
Taliban kill at least 48 in bloody day ahead of Afghan polls
Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more in two blasts Tuesday — one at a campaign rally for the president and the other in Kabul — with the insurgents warning of more violence ahead of elections. The first attack saw ...
President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that Hamza bin Laden, the son and designated heir of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, was killed in a counterterrorism operation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. "The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives Al-Qaeda of important leadership skills ...
Taliban car bomb blast kills four Afghan special forces members in Kabul
A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan Special Forces base in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least four commandos, officials said, as violence continued to escalate following the collapse of peace talks between the United States and Taliban insurgents. The bomber blew up an explosives-laden minibus ...
U.S. peace talks with the Taliban are now "dead," President Donald Trump declared Monday, two days after he abruptly canceled a secret meeting he had arranged with Taliban and Afghan leaders aimed at ending America's longest war. Trump's remark to reporters at the White House ...
