Taliban

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Amid Stunning Taliban Advance, Afghan Leader Finally Speaks

Ashraf Ghani: We won't give up our 'achievements' over past 2 decades

(Newser) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani delivered a televised speech on Saturday, his first public appearance since the recent Taliban gains, in which he vowed not to give up the "achievements" of the 20 years since the US toppled the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks. "We have started consultations, inside...

Panic, Disbelief in Kabul as More Cities Fall to Taliban

Group has completed sweep of southern Afghanistan

(Newser) - The Taliban's offensive in Afghanistan continued with terrifying speed Friday, with another three provincial capitals falling to the militants. Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, was under Taliban control Friday after weeks of heavy fighting. Lawmakers in Uruzgat and Zabul provinces say their capitals have fallen to the Taliban,...

Taliban Take Afghanistan&#39;s 2nd- and 3rd-Largest Cities
Kandahar Falls 
to Taliban
Aug 13, 2021 1:26 AM CDT

Kandahar Falls to Taliban

Herat, the country's 3rd-largest city, does also

(Newser) - The Taliban captured two major Afghan cities, the country's second- and third-largest after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of the American military mission in Afghanistan. The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet...

US Sends Troops to Help Evacuate Embassy

With Taliban closing in on Kabul, administration asks that its diplomatic post be spared

(Newser) - If the Taliban successfully storm Kabul, the US is asking that they please spare the American Embassy. In the meantime, troops are being sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate Americans stationed at the embassy. Other diplomatic stations in the country already have been closed as the Taliban overrun the nation...

Taliban Just Took Its Biggest Prize Yet

Third-largest city, Herat, falls to the group

(Newser) - Another day, another major city captured by the Taliban. And this time's it's the biggest prize to date. The militant group on Thursday overran Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city and a strategic provincial capital near Kabul, further squeezing the country's embattled government just weeks before the end...

Report: Pentagon Fears Kabul Could Fall in 30 Days

Taliban seizes 10th provincial capital

(Newser) - Less than a week ago, the Taliban seized their first provincial capital since the withdrawal of US troops began. On Thursday, they seized their tenth, raising their flag in the city of Ghazni, just 80 miles southwest of Kabul, the AP reports. Another three of the country's 34 capitals...

With 'Stunning Speed,' Taliban Takes 3 More Provincial Capitals

Capitals of Badakhshan, Baghlan, and Farah provinces fall to fundamentalist Islamic group

(Newser) - The Taliban seized three more provincial capitals in Afghanistan and a local army headquarters in a blitz across the country's northeast, officials said Wednesday, with the insurgents now controlling some two-thirds of the nation as the US and NATO finalize their withdrawal after its decades-long war there. The fall...

Book: US Lied About Cheney's Close Call With Taliban

Suicide bomber nearly killed him at Bagram base, according to 'The Afghanistan Papers'

(Newser) - Back in 2007, a Taliban suicide bomber struck at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan and killed 23 people. As it turns out, Vice President Dick Cheney was at the base at the time on an unannounced visit, and while he wasn't injured, the Taliban said he had been...

Slain Photojournalist's Body Mutilated Beyond Recognition

Taliban say they treated Danish Siddiqui's remains with respect

(Newser) - An Indian photojournalist was kidnapped by the Taliban and executed, then his body was mutilated, Afghan officials say. Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winner working for Reuters, was ambushed while covering fighting in the Spin Boldak region, near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, in mid-July, the Hindu reports. Siddiqui managed...

Taliban Slaying of Online Comic Sparks Anger, Apprehension

Watchdog group says even mild criticism isn't safe

(Newser) - The Taliban's killing of a Kandahar police officer, better known as a goofy comic who posted his bits on social media, has drawn condemnation across Afghanistan. Nazar Mohammad Khasha, also known as Khasha Zwan, was dragged from his home and shot to death last week, the Washington Post reports....

Biden Message to First Afghan Evacuees: 'Welcome Home'

First group of interpreters arrives in US, with hundreds more to be brought over to escape Taliban retaliation

(Newser) - The Biden administration promised to help thousands of translators in Afghanistan flee their homeland ahead of the US troop withdrawal there next month. That promise is now coming to fruition, as the first 200 or so Afghans, mostly interpreters and their families, were evacuated and transported to Dulles International Airport,...

Taliban Go After Air Force By Assassinating Its Pilots

Afghan military pilots are being tracked down in their neighborhoods

(Newser) - The Taliban have been rolling through Afghanistan on the ground as US forces leave, seizing territory sometimes without resistance. But Afghanistan's government still has a tactical advantage, something it has that the Taliban don't: an air force. In an apparent campaign to eliminate that advantage, Taliban forces have...

Taliban: We Now Control Almost All of Afghanistan

Group says it has 85% of territory amid American withdrawal

(Newser) - The Taliban claimed Friday that they now control 85% of Afghanistan's territory amid a surge in wins on the ground and as American troops complete their pullout. The announcement came at a press conference at the end of a visit by a senior Taliban delegation to Moscow this week—...

Hostage May End Up Left Behind as US Withdraws

Mark Frerichs was captured by Taliban last year

(Newser) - American contractor Mark Frerichs was seized in Kabul 17 months ago—and with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan picking up speed, his relatives fear he will be left behind. Special operations forces who could carry out a rescue operation if the 58-year-old were to be located will be gone from...

10 Killed 'in Cold Blood' in Mine-Clearing Camp

Taliban denies responsibility for attack on HALO Trust group in Afghanistan

(Newser) - The Taliban is denying responsibility for an attack in Afghanistan this week that left 10 members of a mine-clearing group dead and at least 16 injured, though the Afghan Interior Ministry is saying the hard-line movement was indeed responsible. In a statement , the HALO Trust, the organization made famous after...

Taliban Says It's Not Ready for Peace Talks

Time is running out on US withdrawal deadline

(Newser) - A Taliban spokesman said Monday the religious militia won’t attend a peace conference tentatively planned for later this week in Turkey, putting US efforts to get a peace plan anytime soon in jeopardy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously said he wanted to see a peace agreement between Afghanistan’...

3 Female Media Workers Gunned Down in Afghanistan

'This cannot be tolerated,' US embassy says

(Newser) - Three young women who worked for a TV station in Afghanistan were gunned down in two separate attacks as they walked home from work in Jalalabad Tuesday, authorities say. Police say a fourth woman was shot and critically injured, the BBC reports. The three women killed were between 18 and...

New Taliban Tactic Is a Big Worry for US

Afghan security forces might not be able to deal with drone attacks

(Newser) - As US forces prepare to fully withdraw from Afghanistan, militants have used what officials believe is a new and potentially devastating tactic. An attack that killed four of the governor's security guards and injured at least eight others in Kunduz province Sunday night is believed to have been carried...

Deadly Attack at Biggest University in Afghanistan

At least 19 killed in Kabul

(Newser) - Gunmen stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by dignitaries, sparking an hours-long gun battle and leaving at least 19 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country's largest school, per the AP . No details on the victims, including whether any students were killed,...

Al-Qaida Leader Wanted by FBI Is Dead: Afghanistan

Raid could roil peace talks withTaliban

(Newser) - Afghanistan said Sunday that it killed a top al-Qaida propagandist on an FBI most-wanted list during an operation in the country's east, showing the group's continued presence there as US forces work to withdraw from America's longest-running war. The reported death of Husam Abd al-Rauf, whose nom...

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