Category Archives: Taliban

Hopes for peace appear to be slipping away in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Peace process between the government and Taliban was crumbling before talks began

In the wake of a devastating attack in Kabul on Tuesday on a maternity unit that saw gunmen shoot women in labour, new mothers and their newborn babies, hopes of a peace process for Afghanistan appear to be slipping away as both the government and Taliban ramp up military operations.

The Taliban on Thursday attacked a city in Afghanistan’s east, killing five civilians and at least one soldier, and injuring dozens more with a truck bomb. The bomber had been targeting an army base in Gardez, but the explosives detonated before he reached it, leaving a too-familiar tangle of rubble and bodies.

Continue reading...

FBI offers $1m reward for captors of Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle

Posted on by
  • US-Canadian couple were kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2012
  • After release Boyle was cleared of abusing Caitlan in Canada

The FBI has offered a $1m reward for the arrest and prosecution for those responsible for the kidnapping of US citizen Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle, eight years ago in Afghanistan.

The offer of a reward for their captors is the latest twist in the protracted saga of Coleman and Boyle, who were the subject of intense media scrutiny following their dramatic rescue in 2017 – and a subsequent trial over allegations of abuse by Boyle.

Continue reading...

Babies among dozens dead in attacks on Afghan hospital and funeral

Posted on by

Ashraf Ghani orders resumption of anti-Taliban offensive after attacks in Kabul and Nangarhar

Gunmen attacked a hospital that houses a maternity clinic in Kabul, killing at least 16 people including two newborn babies, and a suicide bomber killed at least 24 others at a funeral on a morning of double tragedy for Afghanistan.

In the capital, soldiers raced out of the hospital carrying infants wrapped in bloodstained blankets to waiting ambulances, after the attackers rampaged their way through the wards.

Continue reading...

US warns Taliban to curb attacks after exit deal calls for 80% cut to violence

Posted on by

Previously secret agreement emerges as spokesmen for US military and Taliban clash on Twitter

The US military has warned the Taliban it must curb attacks inside Afghanistan and revealed that a US troop withdrawal agreement signed in February included an informal commitment for both sides to cut violence by 80%.

The previously secret arrangement was revealed in a Twitter spat between the US military spokesman Col Sonny Leggett and his Taliban counterpart Zabihullah Mujahid. It comes after a sharp escalation in militant attacks since the agreement was sealed.

Continue reading...

Taliban refuses to talk to Afghan government’s negotiating team

Posted on by

The militant group’s refusal represents a setback for US-brokered peace talks

The Taliban refused to begin talks with the Afghan government’s new negotiating team on Saturday, in a setback to the US-brokered peace process for one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

Related: US to cut $1bn of Afghanistan aid over failure to agree unity government

Continue reading...

US to cut $1bn of Afghanistan aid over failure to agree unity government

Posted on by

Mike Pompeo suggests funding could be restored if President Ashraf Ghani and political rival Abdullah Abdullah reach deal

The US has said it will cut its aid to Afghanistan by $1bn, blaming the failure of President Ashraf Ghani and his main political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, to agree on a unity government for talks with the Taliban.

A further $1bn could be cut in 2021, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said after a surprise visit to Kabul on Monday failed to persuade the two men to make a deal. Pompeo suggested the aid could be restored if they changed their minds.

Continue reading...

Dozens killed in attack on political rally in Kabul

Posted on by

Assault highlights insecurity in Afghan capital in run-up to scheduled US withdrawal

Gunmen opened fire on Friday at a ceremony in Afghanistan’s capital attended by prominent political leaders, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens more before the two attackers were killed by police, officials said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website.

Continue reading...

Senior ICC judges authorise Afghanistan war crimes inquiry

Posted on by

Decision overturns earlier rejection of request to examine actions of US soldiers

Senior judges at the international criminal court have authorised an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, overturning an earlier rejection of the inquiry.

The ICC investigation will look at actions by US, Afghan and Taliban troops. It is possible, however, that allegations relating to UK troops could emerge in that process.

Continue reading...

Trump reportedly tells Taliban official ‘you are a tough people’ in first phone call

Posted on by

Call with official whom Trump mistakenly called ‘leader of the Taliban’ is first direct exchange between a US president and insurgent leadership since 2001

Donald Trump has spoken by telephone to a senior Taliban official at a time when a row over prisoner exchanges and a fresh outbreak of violence jeopardised a historic US-Taliban peace agreement signed on Saturday.

The conversation between Trump and the head of the Taliban’s political office, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was the first direct exchange between a US president and the insurgent leadership since the US military intervention in Afghanistan began in 2001.

Continue reading...

Afghanistan: bomb attack kills three as Taliban ends partial truce

Posted on by
  • Motorcycle with bomb explodes during football match
  • Taliban’s week-long ‘reduction of violence’ expired on Saturday

Three people have been killed and 11 injured in a motorcycle bomb attack at a football match in eastern Afghanistan, as the Taliban announced an end to a partial truce two days after signing a deal with the US.

The Taliban had agreed to a week-long “reduction of violence” as a confidence-building measure ahead of the agreement signed on Saturday, in which the US pledged that all foreign forces would leave Afghanistan within 14 months, if the Taliban sat down for talks on Afghanistan’s future with government representatives.

Continue reading...

Australia welcomes US-Taliban agreement on Afghanistan troop withdrawal

Posted on by

Peace deal will see troops withdrawn from conflict in which 41 Australians, 2,500 Americans and more than 100,000 Afghans were killed

Australia has urged the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan government “in good faith” as it welcomes the withdrawal of US forces from the war-ravaged country.

The foreign minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, issued a joint statement on Sunday welcoming the agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban that will see the 19-year presence of coalition forces come to an end.

Continue reading...

Mike Pompeo hails Taliban agreement as Trump allies voice concerns

Posted on by

Lindsey Graham said he is ‘very suspect of the Taliban’ while John Bolton said signing the agreement is an ‘unacceptable risk’

In Doha on Saturday US secretary of state Mike Pompeo hailed the “historic talks” which led to the signing of an agreement with the Taliban which will see the US begin to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan after more than 18 years of war.

But at home in Washington, the deal was not greeted with universal enthusiasm even by allies of Donald Trump such as Lindsey Graham or former aides, among them the former national security adviser John Bolton.

Continue reading...

US and Taliban sign deal to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan

Posted on by
  • US troops could leave Afghanistan within 14 months
  • Taliban agree to peace talks with other Afghans

The US and the Taliban have signed a landmark peace agreement after nearly 20 years of war that could result in American troops leaving Afghanistan within 14 months.

The deal also paves the way for talks between Afghans to end one of the longest-running conflicts in the world.

Continue reading...

US and Taliban sign deal to withdraw troops from Afghanistan – video

Posted on by

The US and the Taliban have signed a peace agreement aimed at ending the 18-year war in Afghanistan. 

According to the agreement, the US will start withdrawing thousands of troops in exchange for Taliban commitments to prevent Afghanistan from being a launchpad for terrorist attacks

Continue reading...

US and Taliban to sign deal paving way for troop pullout and peace talks

Posted on by

A seven-day ‘reduction of violence’ deal will begin on Friday night, Mike Pompeo said, leading to signing of a peace agreement

The US and Taliban are due to sign an agreement on 29 February that will lead to the withdrawal of thousands of US troops and the start of comprehensive peace talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced that the agreement would be signed once there has been a week-long “nationwide reduction in violence”, to start at midnight on Friday, according to an understanding reached by US and Taliban negotiators meeting in Doha.

Continue reading...

Pompeo touts partial ceasefire with Taliban in push for election-year troop reduction

Posted on by

US secretary of state calls for significant drop in violence before formal peace talks can begin

Mike Pompeo has hailed “a pretty important breakthrough” in Afghan peace talks, as officials confirmed that the Taliban had agreed to a partial week-long ceasefire as a precursor to broader peace talks and the withdrawal of at least some US troops.

But the US secretary of state said that Washington still wanted to see a significant reduction in violence before formal negotiations could begin. “If we can get there – if we can hold that posture for a while – then we’ll be able to begin the real, serious discussion which is all the Afghans sitting at a table,” Pompeo said on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Two US military service members killed in Afghanistan

Posted on by
  • Roadside bomb explosion seems certain to stall Taliban talks
  • Two US service members wounded, military says

Two US service members were killed and two injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the US military said on Saturday.

In keeping with defense department rules, the military did not identify the service members.

Continue reading...

Afghanistan papers detail US dysfunction: ‘We did not know what we were doing’

Posted on by

A key theme of the trove of documents published this week was the lack of coherence in Washington’s approach to Afghanistan from the outset

In the midst of Barack Obama’s much-vaunted military surge against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2010, Hayam Mohammed, an elder from Panjwai near the Pakistani border confronted an officer from the US 101st Airborne who had come into his village.

“You walk here during the day,” the elder told the soldier bitterly as the Observer listened. “But at night [the Taliban] come bringing night letters” – threats targeting those collaborating with foreign forces.

Continue reading...

Afghanistan papers reveal US public were misled about unwinnable war

Posted on by

Interviews with key insiders reveal damning verdict on conflict that cost 2,300 US lives

Hundreds of confidential interviews with key figures involved in prosecuting the 18-year US war in Afghanistan have revealed that the US public has been consistently misled about an unwinnable conflict.

Transcripts of the interviews, published by the Washington Post after a three-year legal battle, were collected for a Lessons Learned project by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar), a federal agency whose main task is eliminating corruption and inefficiency in the US war effort.

Continue reading...

Freed Taliban hostage Timothy Weeks says he never gave up hope

Posted on by

Australian teacher thanks those who helped free him and says he formed tight bonds with some of his captors

Freed Taliban hostage Timothy Weeks says he never gave up hope he would be rescued during three “long and tortuous” years in captivity in Afghanistan.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his release as part of a complex prisoner swap almost two weeks ago, the Australian teacher thanked all those who helped secure his freedom, and said he had formed extraordinarily tight bonds with some of his Taliban captors.

Continue reading...