Truck was carrying Afghan families returning Pakistan when it overturned, official says
A truck overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 18 people on board including 10 children, a provincial official told Agence France-Presse.
Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving and a lack of regulation.
Continue reading...Up to 70% of girls may be in early or forced marriages but law now makes divorce impossible if husbands disagree
Child marriage appears to have been legally recognised for the first time by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as activists say “shameful” new laws make it almost impossible for girls and young women to seek divorce against their husbands’ will.
There are no official statistics on forced and underage marriages in Afghanistan, but activists say it has risen at an alarming rate in recent years, driven by the ban on girls being in education after the age of 11.
Continue reading...Soaring oil prices and the blockade are preventing food, fuel and medicine being delivered to millions of people in desperate need, say NGOs
The volatility of global oil prices caused by the US and Israel’s war on Iran is taking a toll on the most vulnerable people, by slowing or blocking food and medical aid from reaching them.
Now aid organisations are calling for a “humanitarian corridor” to be opened through the strait of Hormuz amid rocketing transportation costs.
Continue reading...Pakistan officials dismiss Afghan media reports and official statements about strikes on university in Kunar province as ‘blatant lie’
Mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan on Monday struck a university and civilian homes in north-eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounding at least 85, Afghan officials said.
Pakistan denied the accusation of targeting a university.
Continue reading...Home secretary indicates Whitehall talks about returns programme, a move that would shock humanitarian groups
Shabana Mahmood has refused to rule out sending rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the Taliban-controlled country.
The home secretary said she is “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and EU countries about a returns programme for refused claimants. She also indicated that “additional conversations” about Afghan returns were happening inside Whitehall.
Continue reading...Discussions reportedly come after Trump’s decision to stop initiative that allowed group to apply to resettle in the US
The Trump administration is in discussions to potentially send up to 1,100 Afghans who helped US forces during the war in Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a non-profit confirmed on Tuesday.
The resettlement talks, first reported by the New York Times, come after Donald Trump’s decision to stop an initiative that allowed Afghans who assisted US war efforts to apply to resettle in the US.
Continue reading...The former soldier’s previous defamation trial presents the rare situation of there being hours of evidence of his alleged crimes already on the public record
For almost every day of his marathon defamation trial, Ben Roberts-Smith VC, sat in the same spot in the federal court. A chair by the window, bathed in sunshine, from where he could glare at witnesses giving evidence.
He sits now in a very different position.
Continue reading...Hostilities should halt and healthcare facilities must be treated as ‘safe havens’, WHO’s regional chief has said
A total stop to hostilities in the Middle East is needed to halt a “health crisis unfolding in real time”, the World Health Organization’s chief in the region has said.
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities must be treated as “safe havens”, urged Dr Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Continue reading...Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified laws
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”.
Continue reading...Afghan Taliban government says more than 400 people killed and 265 injured, as Pakistan disputes target of strike
Families and friends of people who were being treated at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul have continued to search for their loved ones two days after it was bombed by Pakistan, in the deadliest attack so far in the months-long conflict between the two countries.
The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in the airstrike, which took place on Monday night as people and staff at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Continue reading...Deputy government spokesman says death toll has reached 400 people ‘so far’ as Islamabad denies targeting facility for drug addicts
Hundreds were feared dead after a strike on a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which officials from Afghanistan blamed on the Pakistani military.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. He said most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility.
Continue reading...Afghan government reports zero casualties and accuses neighbouring country of wanting to ‘fuel the fire of war’
Pakistan has targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province overnight, as the fighting that erupted between the two neighbours late last month showed no signs of abating.
The cross-border attacks, which have included Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul, are the deadliest yet between the countries. Islamabad has referred to the conflict as an “open war”, adding to concerns about regional stability as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran engulfs the Middle East and beyond.
Continue reading...Sporadic clashes reported in several provinces in Afghanistan as both sides give conflicting death tolls
Afghanistan has said it had thwarted Pakistan’s attempted airstrikes on Bagram airbase, the former US military base north of Kabul, as cross-border fighting between the two countries stretched into a fourth day.
Months of clashes have flared up again since Thursday, when Afghanistan launched attacks along the frontier and Pakistani forces hit back on the border and from the skies. Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Taliban offer to resolve dispute via dialogue after Pakistan bombed cities in Afghanistan in latest escalation with its neighbour
Washington endorsed Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” after it bombed major cities across Afghanistan amid heightened tensions between the two hostile neighbours.
The Taliban government in Kabul stressed it was ready to negotiate on Friday as violence intensified between the two countries.
Continue reading...‘Intelligence-based, selective operations’ carried out against Pakistani Taliban camps, says information ministry
Pakistan carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan on Saturday night, stating it was targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants it blames for recent attacks inside the country.
Islamabad did not say in precisely which areas the strikes were carried out or provide other details. There was no immediate comment from Kabul, and reports on social media suggested the strikes were carried out inside Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Whistleblower says chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of children, after alarm was raised
The former director of UK special forces and other senior military officers tried to cover up concerns that SAS units were carrying out unlawful killings in Afghanistan, an inquiry has heard.
A senior special forces whistleblower said the chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of two small children, after the alarm was first raised in early 2011. That failure allegedly allowed them to continue until 2013.
Continue reading...The strikes come a day after a suicide attack on a security compound in Pakistan’s Peshawar city
Pakistan strikes on neighbouring Afghanistan have killed 10 people – among them nine children – a Taliban government spokesperson has said, a day after a suicide attack on a security compound in Pakistan’s Peshawar city.
“The Pakistani invading forces bombed the house of a local civilian resident ... As a result, nine children (five boys and four girls) and one woman were martyred” in Khost province, Zabihullah Mujahid said on X.
Continue reading...Defence minister says country is in ‘state of war’ after suicide blast kills 12 and injures 27 outside court buildings
At least 12 people have been killed in a suicide blast in Islamabad carried out by the Pakistan Taliban, as the country’s defence minister said a deadly surge in terror attacks had put the country in a “state of war”.
The explosion, which was confirmed as a suicide attack by several government ministers, took place outside district court buildings in the capital on Tuesday at about 12.30pm. The area is usually heavily crowded with lawyers and litigants attending trials.
Continue reading...Northern provinces of Balkh and Samangan worst hit by magnitude 6.3 quake, which also damaged Mazar-i-Sharif’s Blue Mosque
A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook northern Afghanistan before dawn on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640 others, 25 critically, a disaster management official said. Health officials said the numbers could rise.
The US Geological Survey said the quake’s epicentre was located 22km (14 miles) south-west of the town of Khulm, and that it struck at 12.59am at a depth of 28km (17 miles).
Continue reading...Two sides declare ceasefire after Islamabad carries out retaliatory strikes on Kabul and Kandahar province
Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed after fresh clashes broke out along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and Islamabad carried out retaliatory airstrikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Kandahar province.
The two sides declared a ceasefire by Wednesday night after the latest outbreak of violence, which came after the deadliest cross-border clashes in years over the weekend.
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