United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was obviously so impressed by her meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that she ventured into the White House briefing room after sitting in on the meetings between President Barack Obama and the two leaders, to express her optimism that a solid alliance had been formed committed to crushing the Taliban and other extremist elements destabilising the region.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Helmand, along with neighbouring Kandahar, are one of the most unstable regions of Afghanistan, where Taliban-linked insurgents have been fighting the Kabul government and international forces for almost nine years.
In a major crackdown to eliminate the terrorists' sanctuaries, Afghanistan has carried out three air strikes within a week in Kunar province, bordering Pakistan, inflicting heavy casualties on Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group.
As the US announced deepening of its involvement in Afghanistan by despatching 30,000 more troops, President Barack Obama has quietly authorised an expansion of war against terrorism in Pakistan under which CIA would widen its campaign of strikes against militants by unmanned drones.
Hardening its stance on terror safe havens in Pakistan, the United States has made it clear to Islamabad that time is over for hedging its bets on terror groups like Haqqani network, the Afghan Taliban or the LeT against India.
On Friday night, Taliban attackers detonated a car bomb outside the guesthouse and stormed the building, and then exchanged fire with security forces, officials said.
"The kind of terrorism, which is going on in Pakistan, is due to Kashmir issue," Hamid Gul, the former head of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) who is also believed to have created Kashmiri militants groups claimed in the CNN's Connect the World programme.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has became one of only four terrorist leaders for whom the United States has offered a bounty of $10 million, joining the likes of Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar.
Make no mistake, the Bangladeshi and Afghan missions in Chanakyapuri would report verbatim to their capitals the abrasive remarks attributed to the Indian leadership, casting a slur on their countries' political culture and national honour, warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Secret three-way talks between the United States, Afghanistan and Taliban have begun, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.
Thousands of American, Afghan and British troops launched an attack on the watery Taliban fortress of Marja on Saturday morning.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence had brought in Haqqani network's chief Sirajuddin Haqqani as the deputy leader of the Taliban last year to protect him from the Americans, a media report said on Sunday.
The embassy cited the rescue of the engineers in fresh security advisory while calling upon all Indians in Afghanistan to strictly adhere to the measures advised by it in view of a spike in violence in that country.
'Pakistan should evolve a common narrative. The country should have common position in combating all kinds of terrorism and not fight selectively.' 'The main motive was revenge, of course. But the Nobel Prize to Malala Yousufzai also contributed to the Taliban's anger' Bestselling Pakistani author and foreign policy expert Ahmed Rashid speaks exclusively on the Peshawar school attack with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar, a former operative of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, has said that the US must directly talk to Afghan Taliban chief and his protg Mullah Omar to resolve the political situation in Afghanistan.
As top Obama Administration official went to the Capitol Hill to explain to them the new Af-Pak policy, lawmakers questioned Pakistan's role and wanted assurance from the US government that Islamabad would be honest and sincere this time.
"We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like Al-Qaeda," the US president said in a statement.
The Taliban said the operation has been named after its deceased leader Mullah Omar.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
Launching another broadside against Pakistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said the Taliban, that has launched some audacious attacks in his country will not be able to "move a finger without Pakistani support."
Jalaluddin Haqqani died a year ago due to prolonged illness and was buried in Afghan province of Khost.
The latest militant assault on the Afghan capital comes as the Taliban intensify their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government in Kabul.
Female sport in Afghanistan has been crushed since the Taliban took over from a Western-backed government in August 2021.
Four gunmen trying to storm a guesthouse in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's Kabul have been killed, say the police.
Murtaza Ahmadi, now aged 7, grabbed world headlines two years ago when his brother made him a shirt out of a blue and white plastic bag, with Messi's name and number 10 playing number.
The US has hailed a power-sharing deal between rival Afghan presidential candidates as a "moment of extraordinary statesmanship" that ended a prolonged dispute threatening to plunge the war-torn nation into further political turmoil and complicate the NATO troops withdrawal.
Pakistan will no longer provide sanctuary to top militant commander Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban and will not allow its territory to be used against anyone, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi has said.
Tired of the alleged "double game" being played by Islamabad, American lawmakers have announced to hold a Congressional hearing next week to discuss whether Pakistan is a "friend or foe" of the US in the war on terror.
The Pakistani Taliban have introduced "moral policing" in parts of northeastern Afghanistan in a bid to enforce their puritanical version of Islam, Afghan police officials have said.
Four Indians and an American, were killed during the five-hour long siege that ended early Thursday morning.
The chief of the Islamic State militant group in Af-Pak region has been killed in a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan, three days after another top leader of the terror outfit died in a similar American air assault, a media report said on Saturday.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday expressed concern over a large gathering of Afghan nationals protesting outside the UNHCR office and seeking refugee status, saying it could act as a super spreader of coronavirus as there is lack of adherence to Covid-19 appropriate norms.
WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
The terror attack may lead to a further exodus of Afghan Sikhs from the country. On Sunday, the day after the Kabul attack, India reportedly approved 111 emergency visas for Afghan Sikhs.
Taliban's elusive leader Mullah Omar has claimed that his fighters are near victory and has asked United States President Barack Obama to withdraw his troops 'unconditionally and as soon as possible.'
Indian-American doctor Dilip Joseph, who was rescued from Taliban's captivity in a daring operation in Afghanistan has thanked the US and Afghan forces for saving his life, after the physician returned home in Colorado.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has rejected offer of a ceasefire by the Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban's spokesman outlined conditions for a ceasefire, which said the country must stop its involvement in the war pitting Afghan insurgents against the Kabul government and refocus on a 'war of revenge' against India.
Three years after she became an emblem of the brutality of the Taliban, a young Afghan woman, who had her nose and ears sliced off as punishment for running away from her abusive husband, has unveiled her reconstructed face to the world.
Streets in capital Kabul were mainly quiet and tense early on Thursday as Afghans awoke and headed to the polls for an anxiously awaited presidential election that Taliban fighters have vowed to disrupt with attacks
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