Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban claimed responsibility for a large explosion in the Afghan capital Monday night, just hours after a U.S. envoy briefed the Afghan government on an agreement “in principle” with the insurgent group that would see 5,000 U.S. troops leave the country within five months.

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan showed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday the draft of an agreement between the United States and the Taliban expected to clear the way for a phased U.S. troop withdrawal, officials said.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. diplomat who has completed nine rounds of talks with Taliban representatives, is meeting Afghan leaders in Kabul this week to build a consensus before the deal is signed.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three security forces and 10 Taliban militants were killed in fresh clashes in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province on Monday, a local official said.

"Militants waged an attack with assault rifles and machine guns on Archi district center on early hours of Monday. Government security forces repelled the attack, forcing militants to flee, after leaving 10 bodies behind," Nasruddin Nazari, district chief, told Xinhua.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. envoy has met with the Afghan president in the capital, Kabul, to brief him on the latest round of talks with the Taliban as a deal nears on ending America’s longest war, an official said Monday.

President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman confirmed the meeting took place on Sunday night at the presidential palace, shortly after the American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, arrived from Qatar.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — For almost a year, Afghanistan’s more than 30 million people have been in the awkward position of waiting as a United States envoy and the Taliban negotiate their country’s fate behind closed doors.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban launched an attack on a second Afghan city in as many days on Sunday, an official said, even as a United States envoy says the U.S. and the Taliban are “at the threshold of an agreement” to end America’s longest war.

The spokesman for the Baghlan province police chief, Jawed Basharat, said gunbattles continued on the outskirts of its capital, Puli Khumri. There was no immediate word on any casualties.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have launched a new attack on one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Kunduz, the government said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America’s longest war.

The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave the country, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a U.S.-led invasion.

28 August 2019; AFP: Eighteen years after the assassination of revered anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, his only son is hoping to continue the mission against the insurgents by jumping into Afghanistan's chaotic political fray.

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Wednesday they were close to an agreement with U.S. officials on a deal that would see U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban promise the country would not become a haven for international militants.

Negotiations over how to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan have been held in Qatar’s capital, Doha, since late last year. The ninth round of talks began last week.

JEBUL SIRAJ, Afghanistan (AP) — The children will inherit any peace that comes to Afghanistan, if only they can live to see it.

Whimpering and badly malnourished, they are among the most vulnerable in a country that remains one of the poorest in the world. Now an expected United States-Taliban agreement to end nearly 18 years of fighting raises questions about whether the foreign aid largely propping up the country will drop as troops withdraw.