Afghan Peace Conference Marred by Deadly Terrorist Attack
The massive bombing last week in Kabul that left at least 90 dead and more than 450 injured — and daily anti-government demonstrations — have cast a dark shadow over Afghanistan’s latest attempt to make peace in the war-torn country. The strife came as the Afghan government is wooing “key regional and global stakeholders” to […]
20 killed, 119 wounded in consecutive Kabul suicide bombings
Kabul (dpa) – At least 20 people were killed and 119 others injured in three consecutive bombings at a funeral ceremony in Kabul on Saturday, officials said. Afghan Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz was among the people injured in the blasts – which took place at the funeral of Mohammad Salem Izedyar, the son of […]
Kabul bomb blast victims’ families could be left ‘begging’ to survive
The Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday suffered one of the worst attacks since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. An estimated 90 people died, and hundreds more were wounded. A suicide bomber drove a truck, crammed full of explosives, to the edge of the diplomatic quarter, where it was detonated. For the wounded […]
Nearly 100 Afghan Soldiers Killed in a Week
A Taliban infiltrator has gunned down six government forces in southern Afghanistan, raising the number of army and police personnel killed by insurgents in the past week to nearly 100. Afghan and insurgent officials said Sunday the overnight “insider attack” incident took place at a security outpost in Zabul province where a police guard turned […]
‘Shockingly high’ losses for Afghan forces over winter
Afghan security forces were killed at a “shockingly high” rate during what historically has been a winter lull in fighting against the Taliban, according to a report by a US watchdog. The US government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) says 807 troops from the Afghan National Defencee and Security Forces died between January […]
Making sense of the tragedy in Mazar-i-Sharif
News of the vicious murder of seven United Nations employees in Mazar-i Sharif has outraged and bewildered Western observers as well many Afghans. Thousands of protesters had attended Friday prayers and heard the preacher of the celebrated Blue Mosque condemn the burning of the Quran half a world away at Pastor Terry Jones’ Dove World […]
A Look at Islamic State’s Operations in Afghanistan
So-called Islamic State has wreaked havoc in eastern Afghanistan since 2015, mostly through its loose affiliates — attacking government installations and villages, killing and abducting hundreds of people, and keeping schools shuttered and replacing them with IS religious seminaries. It also claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in the country’s capital, Kabul. Here is a […]
Afghan Forces Kill Up to 50 IS Fighters
Authorities in eastern Afghanistan say counterterrorism army operations have killed up to 50 Islamic State militants, including three senior commanders. The overnight deaths occurred in the district of Achin, an IS stronghold in Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan. A regional military spokesman told VOA’s Afghan service on Wednesday there were 12 foreign militants […]
Massive Bomb Strike Divides Afghan Opinion with Critics Questioning Motives
U.S. use of a massive bomb against Islamic State extemists in Afghanistan has proven divisive in the region, winning support from political and military authorities in Kabul but strong condemnations from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan. In a series of three tweets, Karzai said, “I vehemently and in strongest words […]
Q&A: Islamic State has fewer than 1,000 fighters in Afghanistan. So why did Trump drop the ‘mother of all bombs’?
On Thursday night, the U.S. military unleashed a 20,000-pound bomb — one of the largest non-nuclear weapons in its arsenal — on a tunnel complex the Pentagon said was used by Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan. It was a dramatic escalation of American operations against the militant group’s affiliate in South Asia. It also […]