The Pakistan military believes that American and British military will withdraw from Afghanistan -- and when they do, they will need old Taliban friends such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin to minimise the influence of India in its Afghan backyard.Although Pakistan's military chiefs have been talking about an 'imminent' assault since last June, all the evidence has pointed to deep reluctance to launch a massive ground offensive.
Initial reports state that one person died and three others have been injured.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
Ahmad Massoud had called for a 'national uprising' against the Taliban.
Taliban's supreme commander Mullah Mohammad Omar, now in hiding, has put pressure on his groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan to form a new grouping which has pledged to stop targetting Pakistani security forces and instead focus attention on US-led troops in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated president Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.
The United Sates will continue its fight against the Taliban while seeking a political solution to the Afghan imbroglio, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday even as he rejected Pakistan's concerns on American drone strikes.
'The camp would provide military training for 1,800 ordinary Taliban fighters and 200 low-level commanders,' an unnamed Afghan government official was quoted by The Independent as saying.
People familiar with the development said on Friday that the Chinese envoy held wide-ranging talks with the external affairs ministry's point person for Afghanistan J P Singh.
Dreaded Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is trying to expand its influence in Pakistan, with pamphlets being distributed in Peshawar and border provinces of Afghanistan, seeking support for jihad.
Poe alleged that Taliban is still based in Pakistan and it came as no surprise when a US drone strike killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor.
'It all started after the demolition of Babri Masjid... the Taliban were angry and took out their anger at Hindu and Sikh religious structures,' an afghan refugee in Delhi said.
In a pessimistic assessment of the Afghan war, a top US military official said on Wednesday that after years of neglect, America is basically "starting over" its battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, whose alliance is now stronger than ever.
Three Indians were on Wednesday killed in a Taliban suicide attack on a NATO supply company's compound in Kabul.
In a daring rescue operation, elite American commandos have rescued an Indian-American doctor who was in the custody of the Taliban in Afghanistan, losing one Navy SEAL and killing seven insurgents.
The IMF and World Bank have stopped loans, and the FATF warned its 39 member nations to block Taliban assets.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence is providing safe haven to the Taliban leadership and the West need not mount a military operation to capture Mullah Omar as the elusive insurgent chief "is with them," according to Afghanistan's former spy chief.
The US has the distinction of destroying a flawed but functioning State thrice since 1979. Pakistan has been their constant accomplice, explains Shekhar Gupta.
The move is a critical step in the transition to full Afghan control by the end of 2014 as announced by US President Barack Obama at a NATO summit in Lisbon last year, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted its sources as saying.
The agencies were able to contact Omar after his number was found on the satellite phone of a top Taliban commander Mullah Mujahed, who was captured.
Afghan security forces have killed all the Taliban attackers who unleashed a wave of coordinated suicide attacks targetting diplomatic area, NATO bases and the Parliament in Kabul, a top official said on Monday.
It was the latest targeted assault on a place of worship of the Sikh community in Afghanistan.
These are obviously not 'organic' desertions but brought about under intense military pressure, post the 9/5 arrests. It seemed as if the party was being dismantled the same way it was brought into power!, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
United States efforts to seek an end to the war in Afghanistan has reached a "critical juncture", American officials have said indicating that Obama's pointman Marc Grossman is rushing to the region to resume preliminary talks with the Taliban.
Reuters Photographers Jorge Silva and Zohra Bensemra capture slices of life of Kabul.
Foreign policy is always a work in progress and ups and downs are built into foreign policy process. What is permanent is national interest. Hopefully, this year, which will also witness general elections in the country, will also clear clouds in the foreign policy horizon, observes Rup Narayan Das.
General Stanley Mc Chrystal, the commander of the Allied forces in Afghanistan displayed his anger at the slow pace of operations in Helmand, describing the ongoing operations at Marjah as a 'bleeding ulcer.' McChrystal made the remark at a meeting of international commanders, strategists and afghan officials.
The operation in Musa Qala is one of the largest against the Taliban since the invasion in 2001. It was launched after weeks of air strikes and probing attacks had softened up their defences and killed hundreds of their fighters.
American officials possess satellite photos that 'purportedly' show Pakistani army trucks picking up Taliban troops, Time said.
'India should play the role of a good neighbour, a mediator. and they should stand beside the people of Afghanistan. As a woman, as a human being, I will advise the Indian government to play the role of a peacemaker'
The son of Afghanistan's slain peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani was on Saturday appointed the new head of the Afghan High Peace Council to lead reconciliation talks with the Taliban, months after his father's assassination dealt a major blow to the peace efforts.
India's immediate priorities have been the safe return of the Indians still in Afghanistan, bringing back the Afghan nationals who stood by New Delhi, and ensuring that Afghan soil is not used for terrorism directed at India
The US president alleged that the countries were not doing enough in the war-ravaged country and that they were taking advantage of the United States.
Mullah Dadullah Akhund is trying to outdo slain al-Qaeda leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in viciousness and cruelty
The United States has asked Taliban to put down arms and begin peace talks as it condemned the suicide attack on a popular Kabul restaurant that killed 21 people, including several foreign nationals.
If rapid Talibanisation of Pakistan continues, the next generation of the world's most sophisticated terrorists will be born, indoctrinated, and trained in the nuclear-armed Pakistan, an American think tank on Tuesday said in a report.
Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh, while keynoting a Capitol Hill conference on the topic of India, Afghanistan and Regional Security, has said that as long as Pakistan offers safe havens to the Taliban and terrorist groups within its territory, the United States-led war on terrorism would be a failure.
The United Nations Security Council has dropped five prominent Taliban members from its sanctions blacklist under an ambitious national reconciliation plan of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
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