Lashkar Gah still under control of government forces but local activist says city is under siege

As Boris Johnson announced the end of Britain’s military mission in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters pressed in on the capital of Helmand province, once the centre of the UK’s presence there.

Militants are less than a mile from Lashkar Gah, now also home to tens of thousands of people who have fled the fighting or Taliban rule across the rest of the province, local officials said.

Women in north and central regions of country stage demonstrations as militants make sweeping gains nationwide

Women have taken up guns in northern and central Afghanistan, marching in the streets in their hundreds and sharing pictures of themselves with assault rifles on social media, in a show of defiance as the Taliban make sweeping gains nationwide.

One of the biggest demonstrations was in central Ghor province, where hundreds of women turned out at the weekend, waving guns and chanting anti-Taliban slogans.

Bus attack comes after jihadist group denies atrocity at secondary school that killed at least 50 people

At least 11 people have been killed and dozens injured in the bombing of a bus in Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province.

The blast took place late on Sunday night, said Zabul’s provincial governor’s spokesman Gul Islam Sial, adding that 25 people were injured including women and children who were in critical condition.

Taliban deny responsibility after secondary school targeted in bloody attack in Kabul

Dozens of girls were buried on Sunday at a desolate hilltop cemetery in Kabul, a day after a secondary school was targeted in the bloodiest attack in Afghanistan in over a year.

A series of blasts outside the school during a peak holiday shopping period killed more than 50 people, mostly female students, and wounded more than 100 in Dasht-e-Barchi, a suburb of west Kabul populated mostly by Hazara Shias.

Attack in Afghan capital injures mainly female students coming out of school in Shia Muslim area

At least 40 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a bomb attack on girls leaving their school in a largely Shia Muslim neighbourhood in Kabul.

Residents said they heard multiple blasts just as girls were leaving classes at the Sayed ul Shuhada school in the Afghan capital to return home and break their Ramadan fast. Most of the victims appear to have been students.

Scores also injured in the blast in southern city of Pul-e-Alam the day before Pentagon begins to pull out its remaining forces

At least 21 people have been killed and nearly 100 wounded after a car bomb exploded in an Afghan city south of the capital that president Ashraf Ghani has blamed on the Taliban.

Friday’s blast occurred in a residential area of Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province, as people were breaking their Ramadan fast, and came on the eve of the formal start of the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.