Afghanistan

AYBAK, Afghanistan, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 militants including Mawlawi Noorudin, the shadow governor of Taliban for the northern Samangan province, were killed as fighting aircraft struck the armed outfit's hideout in the relatively restive province on Sunday, army spokesman in the region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.

"Acting upon intelligence report, the fighting planes targeted a hideout of the Taliban rebels in Dara-e-Suf Payan district Sunday morning, killing 12 rebels including Mawlawi Noorudin, the shadow governor of Samangan province," Rezai told Xinhua.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A rocket exploded at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan just minutes into Wednesday, the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the United States, but officials at the compound declared all-clear about an hour later and reported no injuries.

A plume of smoke rose over central Kabul shortly after midnight and sirens could be heard. Inside the embassy, employees heard this message over the loudspeaker: “An explosion caused by a rocket has occurred on compound.”

10 September 2019; AFP: The Taliban on Tuesday vowed to continue fighting against US forces in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump said talks with the insurgents were "dead", saying Washington would regret abandoning negotiations.

The renewed war of words between the two sides raised the spectre of violence in Afghanistan as Trump and the Taliban pledged to take the fight to each other following the precipitous collapse in talks.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Donald Trump’s sudden halt to U.S.-Taliban talks looks like a gift to the beleaguered Afghan president, who has insisted on holding a key election in less than three weeks’ time despite widespread expectations that a peace deal would push it aside. Now, with an agreement to end America’s longest war on hold, Afghanistan suddenly faces a presidential vote amid warnings that it’s not ready — and the threat of even more violence.

6 September 2019; AFP: The historic deal between the US and the Taliban leaves unresolved the fate of Afghan women, whose fragile gains could come under threat as the brutally repressive insurgents seek to expand their influence.

Strictly patriarchal Afghanistan has long been one of the world's worst places for women, but for a relatively small group -- mainly in urban cores like Kabul -- key freedoms such as education and the right to work proliferated after the Taliban fell in 2001.

JANGALAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A “secretive” peace deal between United States and the Taliban could face wide resistance in Afghanistan if it opens the door to the insurgents’ hardline regime, said the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the slain hero of the anti-Soviet resistance.

Ahmad Massoud, who was 12 years old when his father was assassinated days before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is among several Afghan politicians critical of the accord reached with the Taliban this week.

5 Sep 2019; AFP: The Taliban killed at least 10 people including two NATO troops in a Kabul bombing on Thursday, another attack on the Afghan capital just as a US envoy returned to talks with the insurgents on a troop withdrawal.

The car bomb blast shook Shash Darak, a heavily fortified area adjacent to the Green Zone and home to several important complexes including the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence service.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban suicide car bomb rocked Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 10 civilians in a diplomatic area that also includes the U.S. Embassy — the second such attack this week that underscored Afghan government warnings that a preliminary U.S.-Taliban deal on ending America’s longest war was moving dangerously quickly.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said another 42 people were wounded and 12 vehicles destroyed.

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan government has concerns about the draft peace agreement reached between U.S. and Taliban negotiators and wants further clarification, President Ashraf Ghani’s main spokesman said on Wednesday.

The deal, which would see around 5,000 U.S. troops withdrawn and five bases closed in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on America, was presented to Ghani this week by the special U.S. envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad.

KABUL, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from a massive tractor bomb explosion in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul has risen to 16 while 119 others were wounded, the Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at 9:55 p.m. local time Monday after a tractor bomb was detonated at the side of southern wall of Green Village Camp, in a residential area in Qabilbay neighborhood in eastern Kabul, the ministry said in a statement.