Latest Afghanistan News
RSS-
US Taliban to have direct peace talks
The US has decided to hold direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced. The first meet is due to take place in the coming days in Qatar's capital, where the Taliban have opened their first official overseas office, BBC reported. US officials told reporters the first formal meeting between the US and Taliban representatives was expected to take place in Doha ...
-
NATO to stop combat operations in Afghanistan Chief
Beijing, June 18 (Xinhua-ANI): NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Tuesday that NATO forces will no longer plan, execute or lead combat operations in Afghanistan. The remarks came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced at a ceremony in Kabul that his country's security forces are taking over the lead for security nationwide from the NATO coalition. "This decision marks ...
-
Afghan peace council members to talk with Taliban in Qatar Karzai
Kabul, June 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Some members of Afghan High Peace Council will travel to the Gulf state of Qatar to hold formal peace talks with the Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday. "Members of peace council will go to Qatar to initiate peace talks with the Taliban," Karzai told a joint press conference with the visiting NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Earlier ...
More Afghanistan News
RSS-
NATO hands over security to Afghans
NATO Tuesday handed over security to Afghan forces for the whole of Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. At a ceremony in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that from Wednesday "our own security and military forces will lead all the security activities", BBC reported. Tuesday's ceremony saw the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hand ...
-
Afghan forces to lead all military operations from June 19 Karzai
Kabul, June 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Afghan national forces will lead all military operations in the country from June 19, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday. "Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) will lead all military operations from tomorrow," Karzai told a ceremony attended by high- ranking Afghan officials and the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Kabul. The Afghan ...
-
Weak appointments undermine Afghan rights body
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's appointment of a weakly qualified human rights commission with little public consultation raises concerns about the country's most important rights body, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. On June 15, Karzai announced the appointment of five new commissioners to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), most of whom appear to have little or no ...
-
3 killed in suicide bombing in Kabul
At least three civilians were killed and many others wounded Tuesday morning when a suicide bombing hit west of Afghan capital Kabul, witnesses said. "A suicide bomber targeted the convoy of Hajji Mohammad Muaqiq, a member of lower house of Afghan parliament but Muaqiq escaped the attack," a witness told Xinhua. The attack took place in Pul-e-Surkh area, where the Afghan Human Rights office is ...
-
Malala denounces cowardly attack on female students bus in Pakistan
Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, has denounced an attack on a bus carrying female students in Quetta as 'cowardly'. At least 25 people were killed on Saturday when militants blew up the bus in Quetta and then stormed a hospital where survivors had been taken for treatment. According to Fox News, the 15-year-old said the attack ...
-
US Taliban to meet in Doha
/enpproperty--> WASHINGTON - The United States will meet the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha for a peace process in Afghanistan, US officials said on Tuesday. "The US will have its first formal meeting with the Taliban, and indeed first meeting with the Taliban for several years, in a couple of days in Doha," a senior administration official told reporters via conference ...
-
Afghan forces take control of Nato security following news of peace talks
Afghan national forces will lead all military operations in the country from 19 June, President Hamid Karzai has said. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft ...
-
4 US troops killed in Afghanistan
Defense officials say four U.S. troops were killed Tuesday at or near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Officials say the four were killed by indirect fire, likely a mortar or rocket, but they had no other details. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details on the deaths. The attack comes as U.S. and allied forces formally handed over ...
-
Smith outlines Afghan mission post-2014
Australia will maintain an ongoing force of several hundred troops after most of the diggers come home by the end of this year, Defence Minister Stephen Smith has told parliament.Presenting possibly his last update to parliament on the mission in Afghanistan, Mr Smith said the troops remaining would include about 75 personnel, including instructors, support staff and soldiers for protection at ...
-
Engagement in Direct Talks by Taliban Reflects Afghanistans Desire for Peace
As Afghan forces took control of their country's security, the Taliban agreed to join the U.S. and Afghanistan for negotiations. Gwen Ifill talks to former Defense Department official David Sedney, retired Col. David Lamm of the National Defense University and Pamela Constable of The Washington Post about this turning ...
-
Taliban to Join Talks With Negotiators as Afghanistan Takes Control of Security
A breakthrough could be coming for the longest conflict in American history. Senior U.S. officials say they are scheduled to have direct talks with the Taliban and Afghan negotiators. The announcement came as international forces formally handed over full security control to Afghan authorities. Gwen Ifill ...
-
Taliban announces willingness to talk with US
After 12 years fighting our nation's longest war, NATO is handing over control of national security to the Afghans and the Taliban has agreed to talks with the U.S. NBC's Duncan Golestani ...
-
Dateline Doha At last it’s time for America to talk to the men from the Taliban
No more long dinners in Qatari restaurants, or idle afternoons in the capital's many shopping centres. Since they were first secretly delivered by US plane to Doha in 2010, the senior Taliban emissaries whom Washington hoped would eventually agree a peace deal with Kabul have not been rushed off their feet; efforts to kick-start a formal negotiating process to end the war repeatedly ...
-
Video Afghan military officially takes control of countrys security
President Obama's plan for leaving Afghanistan reached a new milestone Tuesday as the Afghan military officially took responsibility for the country's security. The White House also said it would try again to hold peace talks with the Taliban. Major Garrett ...
-
U.S. Taliban to meet in Doha
The United States will meet the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha for a peace process in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. "The U.S. will have its first formal meeting with the Taliban, and indeed first meeting with the Taliban for several years, in a couple of days in Doha," a senior administration official told reporters via conference call. The meeting comes at a ...
-
Four US troops killed in attack on Afghan base official
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Four American troops were killed Tuesday in an insurgent attack on Afghanistan's Bagram air base, a US defense official said, as Washington announced plans to hold talks with the Taliban.The deaths were caused by insurgent "indirect fire," either mortars or rockets, said the official, who spoke on condition of ...
-
Talking with the Taliban
Muhammad Naeem (R), a spokesman for the Office of the Taliban of Afghanistan, speaks during the opening of the Taliban Afghanistan Political Office in Doha on June 18, 2013. The Afghan Taliban opened the office in Qatar to help restart talks on ending the 12-year-old war, saying it wanted a political solution that would bring about a just government and end foreign occupation. (MOHAMMED ...
-
A Look Ahead To The Future Of Afghanistan
Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. JOHN DONVAN, HOST: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm John Donvan in Washington. Neal Conan is away. Of course somebody needed to mark the occasion today by setting off a bomb. It was Afghanistan, where what is hoped will be a turning point was reached today when a ...
-
Afghan peace talks with Taliban at hand but not without their bumps
Qatari Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali bin Fahd al-Hajri, right, and Muhammad Naeem a representative of the Taliban attend a press conference at the official opening of the Taliban office in Doha, Qatar | Osama ...
-
Blast Apparently Aimed at an Afghan Politician Kills 3 in Kabul
KABUL, Afghanistan ...
-
U.S. Taliban to formally talk peace
After more than a decade of war in Afghanistan, and nearly three years of sputtering and unsuccessful attempts at talks, the United States will open formal negotiations with the Taliban this week aimed at ending terror attacks, officials said on ...
-
US Set for Negotiations With Taliban Who Want Commanders Released From Guantanamo Bay
A US Army soldier walks through a cell block at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in 2004. US military hearings on the "enemy combatant" status of 14 top terror suspects began Friday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba out of sight of the media and defense ...
Afghanistan Feature
-
Why should American troops remain in Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is widely regarded, even by its own people, as a puppet state, and has little hope of breaking away from US influence in the foreseeable future, there is wide-spread resentment toward foreign troops, and increasingly loud calls in the states for a withdrawal of troops. But, like or not, these two countries have been tied together irrevocably, even before the war on terror.
Since the invasion of Afghanistan by allied forces in 2001, the country’s destiny has in many ways not been its own. Read more
News from around our Network
