The Taliban is on the run and the US forces have reversed the momentum, said a top Pentagon official on Monday, cautioning against reading too much into a single combat incident in which more than 30 US soldiers was killed in Afghanistan.
Peace talks with the Taliban, trade and security would be high on the agenda during a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Muhammad Omar is alive and hiding in the Pakistani city of Karachi, a top Afghan intelligence official has said, echoing a similar assessment by Western intelligence officials.
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.
Asserting that the United States has the right strategy for Afghanistan to break the momentum of the Taliban, United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday said he would begin to transfer some of the American troops from this war torn country in July 2011.
Afghanistan's political district was rocked by violence on Thursday when Taliban terrorists blew up a British embassy vehicle and later gunfire broke out at an army base.
Omar runs a shadow government, complete with military, religious and cultural councils, and has appointed officials and commanders to virtually every Afghan province and district, just as he did when he ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban claim, the New York Times reported on Monday.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar has left for the US on his maiden visit to hold talks with top American officials on regional security, counter terrorism and intelligence issues.
Female sport in Afghanistan has been crushed since the Taliban took over from a Western-backed government in August 2021.
The Islamic State is preparing to attack India to provoke an Armageddon-like confrontation with the United States, according to an internal recruitment document of the feared group which also seeks to unite the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban into a single army of terror.
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.
If Afghanistan is going to make any gains through democratic reforms, the newly elected president must start with addressing corruption at all levels of government and developing a comprehensive government financing plan independent of American support.
Mullah Naqibullah, the commander of Taliban's militia in Kandahar and his close colleague Mullah Abdul Qayum were reportedly among those arrested.
Afghan Intelligence claims that reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar is in the custody of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence and that after Osama Bin Laden's killing, the wanted terrorist has been abstained from making any contact with his commanders in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the United States to reduce the visibility and intensity of its "intrusive" military operations, saying people of the war-torn nation have lost patience with the presence of American troops in their homes that could exacerbate Taliban insurgency.
A confidential Spanish defence ministry report has alleged Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped arm the Taliban in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government, media reports said. The confidential report, obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's Web site, also alleges the Inter Services Intelligence helped the Taliban procure roadside bombs.
Beijing's growing assertiveness as kingmaker in Kabul has suffered a setback with Washington quietly moving in, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Obama administration has said it is supportive of the peace talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban, but asserted that there is no change in its position that this requires a renunciation of Al Qaeda, following Afghan law and renouncing violence.
The terrorist attack was carried out by ISIS gunmen, General Kenneth Franklin McKenzie, Commander of the United States Central Command, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, hours after the terrorists opened gunfire at American soldiers standing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The Russian-made chopper, owned by the provincial government of Punjab, was on its way to Russia on routine maintenance when it suffered unknown technical glitch and had to force land in Azra district of restive Logar province on Thursday.
The man, dressed in an Afghan border police uniform, opened fire on Isaf troops during the training mission, killing the soldiers in Taliban-infested eastern Afghanistan, Nato announced. The gunman was identified as Azat Gul.
From the US perspective, the immediate political advantage of the Saudi involvement will be two-fold: its impact on Pakistani public opinion and, secondly, in countering the expanding Iranian influence within Afghanistan. The Saudi role would hopefully temper the stridency of 'anti-Americanism' in Pakistan, given their influence on the Islamic parties in Pakistan, especially the Jamaat-i-Islami
In the first major military confrontation since US President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops late last year attack, thousands of American, Afghan and British troops are battling the Taliban in Helmand province of Afghanistan.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
Echoing India's concerns over Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's move toward reconciliation and reintegration of segments of the Taliban into the Afghan government -- which has been endorsed by the Obama administration -- Dr Abdullah Abdullah, erstwhile Afghan foreign minister and Karzai's nemesis, who was a candidate in the controversial 2009 presidential elections, said pursuing such a policy would be a futile exercise.
Afghan refugees in New Delhi protest against the Taliban and Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan.
The talks being held at an undisclosed location, involve high-level representatives of the Taliban authorised by the dominant Quetta Shura led by the groups elusive leader Mullah Omar, Washington Post reported quoting Afghan and Arab sources.
India and the US joined the global community on Tuesday in backing Afghan government's efforts to involve Taliban elements in the peace process but made it clear that amnesty should only be offered to those who had no links with the Al Qaeda and other terror groups.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a former defence minister in the Taliban's Majlis-e-Shura or executive council, was recently arrested along with two Afghan nationals by intelligence agencies in Lahore, the Daily Times reported.
'Whatever comes in the minds of the Pakistani generals and Pakistan military, they just go for it.' 'They do not care about the consequences for their country or the consequences to the people of Pakistan.'
An ISIS suicide bomber was responsible for the explosion outside the Kabul airport, Politico reported citing US officials.
A spokesman for Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, rang an international news agency to confirm that the Taliban had kidnapped the four men.
India can stay relevant in Afghanistan not by being a bystander but by actively bolstering anti-Taliban forces monetarily, militarily and politically, say Lt Gen R K Sawhney and Sushant Sareen
At least 18 people including 14 foreigners were killed in a bloody Taliban-claimed attack.
The Delhi high court on Friday directed the Delhi government and the police to ensure that the number of Afghan nationals, protesting outside the UNHCR office in New Delhi and seeking refugee status, is suitably reduced and they strictly follow Covid-19 appropriate protocol.
The Afghanistan government has cited investigations to claim that the killers of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, its negotiator with the Taliban, were Pakistanis.
A taxi hit the landmine said to have been planted by Taliban rebels on a remote road.
