Kabul: The US will continue airstrikes in support of Afghan forces fighting the Taliban, a top US general said on Sunday. Violence has surged across the country in recent months after the Taliban launched a sweeping assault just days after the US-led foreign forces began their final withdrawal. Speaking to reporters in Kabul, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Army Central Command, said,

Kabul: The main focus for the global leaders and the foreign troops withdrawing from Afghanistan currently is how to financially support the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces along with over-the-horizon logistical support. This was reiterated by Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby during a media briefing on Wednesday. "Right now, the focus of the post-withdrawal support to the Afghan is going to be

A group of 35 of the cross-regional Members of the Group of Friends of Afghanistan and/or the Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan as listed below, condemn in the strongest possible terms the continued violence and targeted killings in Afghanistan including those committed by the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, as well as other armed groups, and transnational terrorist groups such as

The rate of Taliban violence continues to rise despite the now one-year-old peace deal aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan, and the Afghan military still struggles with maintaining its equipment and readiness, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. SIGAR on March 10 released its 2021 “High Risk List,” which outlines specific areas of the U.S. government’s $143 billion reconstruction effort in the

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged the United Nations to take urgent measures to rein in the growing violence against journalists in Afghanistan and provide them with protection after three young women employees of Enekaas TV, a local channel, were gunned down in the Jalalabad city of Nangarhar province on Tuesday. “We deplore and condemn these latest murders of media workers in Afghanistan,” said

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a press conference with the Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar in Moscow on Friday said the Taliban should enter meaningful talks and should reduce violence. “Our main message to the Taliban is to resume meaningful dialogue as soon as possible, avoid further escalation of violence to reach to a conclusion and respect the decisions of the UN Security

The humanitarian needs in Afghanistan skyrocket amid unrelenting violence and the spread of COVID-19, the 2020 Afghanistan Conference is a critical opportunity for the international community to increase funding and bring about an inclusive peace process. With 14 million people in need of aid, a 55% increase since 2019, and 6,000 civilian casualties in the first three quarters of 2020 alone, Afghans are caught

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said that 22 civilians were killed, and 126 others were injured in two separate explosions in Ghor over the weekend and called for a reduction in violence. The Oct. 18 suicide car bombing near the Department of Women's Affairs, the Department of Martyrs and Disabled and the Ghor Police Headquarters in Firozkoh, claimed the lives of 16

Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, on Monday said that while peace talks have continued in Doha, violence has increased alongside. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Zamzam Foundation, a charity to support war victims and orphans, Abdullah said that historic steps have been taken for peace. “The talks are underway, the steps which are taken are preliminary and historic

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres called on the Afghan government and the Taliban to reduce violence and start the intra-Afghan negotiations. In the latest quarterly report released on Saturday, Guterres said that despite the Eid ceasefires, violence has continued in Afghanistan. “Despite brief periods of respite during the two Eid ceasefires, the level of violence in Afghanistan remains far too high, with devastating consequences