Afghanistan

Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban met in Doha for talks on Saturday, AFP correspondents say, as violence rages in the country with foreign forces almost completely back. The two sides have been meeting on and off for several months in the Qatari capital, but talks have lost momentum as the rebels have made…

A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer with Reuters news agency was killed on Friday covering clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban near a border crossing with Pakistan, media reported and quoted an army commander. Afghan forces fought to retake Spin Boldak when Danish Siddiqui and a senior officer were killed in…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to secure Afghanistan’s vital Kabul international airport in a bid to improve US-Turkey relations as American and NATO troops complete their pullout from the war-battered country. But a Taliban warning underscores the military and diplomatic challenges of the Turkish offer. The drive to Kabul’s main airport has turned into a crawl during the 20-year US security presence in Afghanistan, with ever-increasing security checkpoints slowing travellers as they inch towards the…

The Taliban has offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 insurgent prisoners, an Afghan government negotiator said on Thursday, when Pakistan confirmed that the militant group had control of an important border crossing. "There is a huge demand," said Nader Nadery, a key member of the government group involved in peace talks with the Taliban, adding that the rebels also demanded that their leaders' names be removed from a UN blacklist. It was not immediately clear how the government would…

Thousands of interpreters who helped US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will be evacuated beginning in late July, Washington said on Wednesday as Taliban insurgents captured a strategic crossing at Pakistan's border with government forces. In what the White House called Operation Allies Refuge, interpreters and their families…

The Taliban captured the strategic border crossing between Spin Boldak at the border and Pakistan on Wednesday, and continued to make big gains since foreign forces intensified their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry denied that the rebels had taken the area even when social media was flooded with…

France on Tuesday urged all its citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country due to security concerns, the French embassy in Kabul said, as the Taliban continued a blowing offensive while foreign forces completed their withdrawal. "The government will set up a special flight on the morning of July 17, departing from Kabul, to…

The Taliban on Tuesday warned Turkey against extending its troop presence in Afghanistan as US-led forces leave the country, insisting the decision was "reprehensible". "The decision ... is poorly recommended, a violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity and of our national interests," the group said in a statement,…

The Taliban claimed on Friday that they control 85 percent of Afghanistan after seizing important border crossings with Iran and Turkmenistan, part of a sweeping offensive launched as US troops withdraw from the war-torn nation. Hours after President Joe Biden issued a strong defense of the US withdrawal, the Taliban said its fighters had seized the two major…

A sense of dread grows in some of the poorest countries in the world as virus cases grow and more contagious variants tackle a crippling shortage of vaccines. The crisis has alerted public health officials along with millions of unvaccinated people, especially those who are struggling in the informal economy that is not the book, living hand-to-mouth and paying cash in health crises. With intensive care units filled in cities overwhelmed by the pandemic, serious illness can be a death sentence. Africa…