On Thursday, the Taliban said that they had killed a popular comedian. Nazar Mohammad, known as Khasha Zwan, was taken out of his home on July 22 and killed. The family of the comedian, who previously served in Kandahar Police, has blamed the Taliban for the attack.
The Taliban has been making rapid advances across Afghanistan by resorting to widespread violence since the US began withdrawing its troops on May 1.
Kandahar, population 6,00,000, was home to deceased Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and host to key military bases once maintained by the US. It is also a major economic prize. About a dozen strikes are aimed at slowing a Taliban surge, aiding a beleaguered Afghan military.
A media report has revealed that there were 117 Afghan civilian casualties in the past seven days, a drastic difference from the 433 fatalities reported the previous week amid US airstrikes on the Taliban and international calls for a reduction in violence in the war-torn country.
The Taliban slammed the US airstrikes in the Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, as a violation of the Doha agreement.
"If you are Afghans, come and unite within the framework of Afghanism. Do you have a positive message for the people of Afghanistan, especially women."
The Afghan security forces have recently beefed up security operations against the Taliban militants.
Danish Siddiqui – the name that was a force to reckon with in Photojournalism. Danish was killed on the night of July 15 in strife-torn Afghanistan while covering clashes between the Taliban and Afghan Special Forces. This is a tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, who headed the India multimedia team at Reuters.
Afghan special forces had been fighting to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province when Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire, an Afghan commander told Reuters.
Afghan Taliban and their local associates are active in Pakistan's border regions, sources told VOA as Pakistan has acknowledged that bodies of militants killed in Afghanistan arrive in Pakistan, and wounded Taliban are treated in local hospitals.
Twenty militants died and 35 others were injured when the air force targeted hideouts in Dilaram district in western Nimroz province, according to the Ministry.
The Taliban has been sweeping across rural Afghanistan, taking dozens of districts including in places such as northern Badakhshan province, which 20 years ago was an anti-Taliban stronghold.
Unverified videos posted on social media appeared to show Taliban fighters speeding towards the centre of the Qala-i-Naw city on motorcycles. Amid the chaos, there was a jailbreak at the local prison.
In the neighbouring Nangarhar province, 15 Taliban militants were killed and eight wounded after the Afghan Air Force targeted a Taliban hideout in the suburban Hisarak district on Saturday.
The last of the remaining German troops have left Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of deployment in the war-torn country, Defence Minister said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
Sixteen militants were killed and 10 others wounded as Afghan Special Operations Forces conducted overnight operations in Seh Darak, Enayat and Zakhil localities in Kunduz city, 250 km north of Kabul, the official told Xinhua news agency.
"For enduring peace in Afghanistan, terrorist safe havens and sanctuaries must be dismantled immediately and terrorist supply chains disrupted. There needs to be zero tolerance for terrorism in all its forms and manifestations"
Khan Abad district in Kunduz was retaken on Monday, while Chah Ab district in Takhar was seized last week.
The fate of more than a dozen members of the security forces in the district remained unclear because the telecommunications system was down, provincial councillor Abdul Ahad Alibek said.
A United Nations Security Council report released earlier this week has once again established that a significant part of the leadership of Al Qaeda resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region and that the terrorist organization, founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, and like-minded militants continue to celebrate developments in Afghanistan as a victory for the Taliban's cause and thus for global radicalism.
The Union home ministry on Friday night issued the notification for immediate implementation of the order under the Citizenship Act 1955 and Rules framed under the law in 2009.
At least 15 people, mainly civilians, were killed in Afghanistan on Monday, the same day Taliban militants announced a nationwide three-day ceasefire for the upcoming Eid-al0Fitr holidays.
At least 78 people have died in Afghanistan due to heavy rainfall and flash floods in the past week, the country's National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) said on Saturday.
Washington: The White House has said the US military will send additional forces to Afghanistan to protect US and coalition forces during the withdrawal. White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine…
Ghazni (Afghanistan): Afghan fighting planes targeted the Taliban hideouts in the restive Muqar and Gilan districts of eastern Ghazni province on Saturday, killing 12 insurgents and injuring six others, the…
Kabul: At least 78 Taliban militants were killed in various operations conducted by Afghan government forces in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. “Forty-four Taliban…
Washington: US President Joe Biden has announced that all US troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before September 11, a move to end the longest war in American history. “The…
New York: President Joe Biden has indicated that the US is unlikely to meet the May 1 deadline set by his predecessor Donald Trump to get American troops out of Afghanistan. Addressing a news conference in Washington on Thursday, Biden said: “It’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline. Just in terms […]
New Delhi/Ajmer: Signalling the further strengthening of diplomatic and cultural relations with India, Afghanistan President has sent a ‘Chadar’ to the world famous Ajmer Sharif Dargah through its diplomatic mission in New Delhi. The Annual 809th ‘Urs Mubarak’ of Khawaja Gharib Nawaz is ongoing in Ajmer. This is the first ever sacred ‘Chadar mubarak’ sent […]
Kabul: At least 28 civilians lost their lives in bomb blasts across Afghanistan, while 47 others were injured in the last three days, according to officials. In the first deadly blast that took place in Kabul on Sunday, nine people were killed and 20 others injured, Xinhua news agency quoted Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi as […]
Kabul: At least 24 people were injured in a car bombimg outside a district police station in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Monday, police said. “The car bomb was detonated outside the central police station of Daman district at around 10.30 a.m. Initial information found 24 people, including 13 civilians were wounded by the explosion,” a […]
Kabul: A car bombing in the Afghanistan’s central province of Ghazni killed at least 30 Afghan security force members and 24 others wounded on Sunday, officials said Confirming the casualties and injuries, Baz Mohammad Hemat, director of Ghazni civil hospital, told Xinhua news agency that the death toll might increase as some of the wounded […]
New Delhi: The beleaguered Hindu and Sikh minorities of Afghanistan have found support in not just India, but also in the US. A resolution, introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and co-sponsored by seven others, seeks to resettle persecuted religious communities in Afghanistan to the US. Introduced last week, the resolution […]
New Delhi/Kabul: Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad, which runs its terror activities in Indian Kashmir, has become active in Afghanistan. In the last two days, at least 13 Pakistani Jaish terrorists were killed by Afghan security forces in the Khogyani district in Afghanistan. The banned Pakistani terror outfit, headed by Masood Azhar, usually targets civilians and […]
Kabul: At least 14 people, including three assailants, were killed and 63 others wounded when Taliban militants attacked a provincial branch of the country’s national intelligence agency in Aybak, capital of Afghanistan’s northern Samangan province, on Monday, an official said. The attack started after a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a massive car bomb outside Samangan […]
Kabul: Gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in the western part of Kabul on Tuesday, setting off a firefight with the police, officials said. Afghan forces carried out newborn babies and their mothers as they evacuated the hospital, and at least four people were reported wounded. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber targeted a funeral in […]
Kabul: Heavily armed gunmen and suicide bombers blasted their way into a Sikh gurdwara in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 25 worshippers and wounding 8 others, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority community in the strife-torn country. The gunmen attacked the gurdwara in Shor Bazar […]
Tehran: Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday said the so-called peace deal between the Taliban and the United States is an attempt by Washington to justify its illegal presence in Afghanistan. “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the US measures as an attempt to legitimize the presence of its forces in Afghanistan … The United States […]
Islamabad: The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan at Chaman will be closed for an initial period of seven days starting from Monday aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus in both the countries, the Interior Ministry here announced on Sunday. According to a notification issued by the Ministry, the border closure was “in the best […]
Islamabad: Pakistan has welcomed the signing of the historic agreement between the US and Taliban as a major step towards peace in Afghanistan after more than 18 years of war and hoped that the Afghan factions would avail this opportunity to reach a mutual accommodation. Pakistan was represented at the signing ceremony in the Qatari […]