Clashes broke out Saturday as the Taliban broke up a women’s rights protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The activists staged a protest close to the Afghan presidential palace and held banners reading “We are not women of the 90s,” referring to the strict curbs on women’s movement under the Taliban’s previous rule. Local media … Read more
Days after the Biden administration finished evacuating about 124,000 people from Afghanistan, it’s coming to grips with the reality that it doesn’t know who many of those people are. What’s emerging, according to government officials and advocates, is that a small percentage of the Afghan citizens who got out are the ones the US pledged … Read more
The US Congress is likely to finance UN and other agencies providing humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan but there is virtually no chance it will directly fund a new Taliban-led government, congressional aides said on Friday. The United States has been a massive funder of Afghanistan since its 2001 invasion to topple the Taliban, setting aside … Read more
The United States and the international community expects the Taliban to form an inclusive government with representations from different communities and interests, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. “As we’ve said and as countries around the world have said, there is an expectation that any government that emerges now will have some real … Read more
Amid concerns in India that Afghan soil under the Taliban regime can be used for terrorist activities against it, the insurgent group has said it has the right to speak out in favour of Muslims anywhere, including in Kashmir, though it does not have a policy of conducting “armed operations” against any country. Suhail Shaheen, … Read more
The Pentagon has said it has seen no evidence to corroborate reports that there were Pakistan nationals along with the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. “I have not seen anything to corroborate that report,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference on Thursday when asked about the reported allegations by former Afghanistan … Read more
The world is united in what they expect the Taliban to do to get recognition in Afghanistan from the international community, the White House said noting that it is for China to decide where it would like to stand on the situation. “The world is united in what they expect the Taliban to do, which … Read more
The Taliban said on Saturday they were preparing a new cabinet as the U.S. evacuation nears its end and they expected that sharp currency falls and economic turmoil following their takeover of Kabul two weeks ago would subside. Zabihullah Mujahid, the movement’s main spokesman, made the comments to Reuters as the US military winds down … Read more
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal. He also pushed back against criticism that the U.S. should have done more to plan for the evacuation and … Read more
One issued official blessings for the suicide bombers who killed scores in Afghanistan’s cities. Another enthusiastically deployed these bombers, as well as the gunmen who terrorized Afghan civil society in dozens of targeted assassinations. These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and … Read more
