American troops in Afghanistan drops to 8,600 as Taliban make big changes ahead of expected talks
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have put the son of the movement’s feared founder in charge of their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating team, Taliban officials said. The shake-up, one of the most significant in years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan. American troops in Afghanistan returning As head of a newly united military wing, 30-year-old Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob brings his father’s fiercely uncompromising reputation to the battlefield. Equally signifi…
Taliban Make Big Changes Ahead of Expected Talks with Kabul
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban have put the son of the movement's feared founder in charge of their military wing and added several powerful figures to their negotiating team, Taliban officials said. The shake-up, one of the most significant in years, comes ahead of expected talks with Kabul aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan. As head of a newly united military wing, 30-year-old Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob brings his father's fiercely uncompromising reputation to the battlefield. Equally significant is the addition of four member…
Afghan peace talks: India voices concern
In their briefings to India on the prospective talks with the Taliban, the US had assured India that it would not hold talks with the Haqqani network, the deadliest Taliban outfitthat attacked the Indian embassy in Kabul and is known to be close to the Pakistan army. Yet, as the US try to put their talks with the Taliban in motion, its clear the Haqqanis will be part of the Taliban delegation. This will top the talks with Kerry here next week as India joined the clamour against the talks which Indian officials described as "opportuni…
Karzai suspends talks with U.S. over Taliban agreement
The Afghan president on Wednesday suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest the way his government was being left out of initial peace negotiations with the Taliban meant to find a way to end the nearly 12-year war. The move by Hamid Karzai raises tensions significantly and could derail the peace process even before it has begun. In a terse statement from his office, Karzai said negotiations with the U.S. on what American and coalition security forces will remain in the country after 2014 have been put o…
Before US pullout, watchdog warned of Afghan air force collapse
KABUL, Afghanistan — Months before President Joe Biden announced the U.S .’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, Washington’s watchdog warned that the Afghan air force would collapse without critical American aid, training and maintenance. The report was declassified Tuesday. Joe Biden The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, submitted to the Department of Defense in January 2021, underscores that American authorities had been alerted that Afghanistan’s air force did not have the capab…
Indian Defense News: Former Taliban Commander Who Joined ISIS Is Said to Be Killed in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — A former Taliban commander who had recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group was killed in a military operation in Helmand Province on Monday, according to Afghan officials and a tribal elder in the area. Precise details were unavailable. In announcing the death of the commander, Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, the Afghan spy agency said that it had been tracking him for a month, and that he and five of his men had been killed in a “successful military operation” in the Kajaki district of …
Taliban hit Kabul aid workers' compound, breach military base
Kabul: Taliban gunmen stormed a guest house for foreign aid workers in the Afghan capital on Saturday and fought inside former US and British base Camp Bastion in the south, just a month after it was vacated. The attacks spotlight the challenges facing Afghan security forces as most foreign troops prepare to withdraw. Authorities fear hostages may have been taken in Saturday's assault on the guest house in Kabul's western Karte Seh district. The area was cordoned off and gunfire and explosions could be heard late into the ev…
India and Pakistan 'battle' for Afghanistan
Experts say the impending departure of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan could push India and Pakistan toward a proxy war in the conflict-ridden state, as New Delhi and Islamabad fight for influence in the country. "The danger for Pakistan is the Indian influence in Afghanistan," former Pakistani President and Army Chief Pervez Musharraf recently told the AFP news agency in an interview in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. "They (India) want to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan." "If…
Today Taliban hit UK embassy vehicle and one British among six killed
Kabul: Latest in the series of terror attacks in Afghanistan, a British embassy convoy was targeted by a Taliban suicide bomber in Afghan capital Kabul, killing six including two UK embassy staff, one of them being a British national, reports said Thursday. Condemning the attack as outrageous, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond stated "This outrage brings home to us once again the courage and perseverance of the people of Afghanistan and members of the international community who support them". Hammond said that two UK e…
Afghan reconciliation process should not confer legitimacy to insurgent groups: India
Throwing its weight behind Afghanistan on the issue of Taliban opening a political office in Doha, India on Friday said reconciliation process should not undermine legitimate Afghan government or confer legitimacy to insurgent groups. "The reconciliation process should not seek to create equivalence between an internationally recognised Afghan government and insurgent groups, confer legitimacy to insurgent groups or convey the impression of two competing state authorities for Afghanistan," external affairs ministry spokespers…
Syria urgently needs a political solution - John Kerry
Unless the bloodshed in Syria stops, the region could descend into a chaotic sectarian conflict, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday, as he called for an urgent political resolution to the war that has dragged on for two years and claimed 93,000 lives. The top U.S. diplomat and his counterparts from 10 Arab and European nations agreed at a daylong meeting in Qatar to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. But Kerry would not disclose details of the aid, saying only that it would re-balance the fight…
U.S. military role in Afghanistan will still be combat
President Barack Obama may not call what American troops will do in Afghanistan next year “combat,” but he has quietly laid the groundwork for continuing battle against the Taliban. Obama has authorized the military to provide air support to Afghan troops next year after the U.S. has completed the transition to its “advise- and-assist” mission, the White House says. At the same time, administration officials say they aren’t increasing the number of troops, slowing the drawdown or changing their mission, but are allowing commanders …
Pakistan Army Kills 30 Militants Trying to Cross From Afghanistan
DefenseNews : Pakistan’s army said Friday it had killed 30 militants attempting to cross the border from Afghanistan over the last three days, after a suicide attack killed 16 soldiers in the same region. The militants belonged to the Pakistan Taliban or its affiliated groups, the military said in a statement accusing archfoe India of backing them. “The security forces demonstrated exceptional professionalism, vigilance preparedness, and prevented a potential catastrophe,” it said. “A large quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives was al…
US Handed Over Seven Facilities To Afghan Military: Pentagon
Washington: "The US has officially handed over seven facilities to the Afghan Ministry of Defense," CENTCOM said, adding that the US has completed more than 95 per cent of the entire withdrawal process. The US has handed over as many as seven facilities to the Afghan military, the Central Command said on Tuesday, asserting that America has completed more than 95 per cent of its troop withdrawal and has entered the last phase of the drawdown from the war-torn country. Since the decision of US President Joe Biden, the Department of Def…
Blast Claimed by IS Kills Four in Northwest Pakistan
DefenseNews: An explosion in northwest Pakistan killed at least four local government officials and police Wednesday, an officer told AFP, in an attack claimed by a branch of the Islamic State group. “One senior government official, along with another government official and two police officers, were killed in the attack. Eleven people were wounded,” said Waqas Rafiq, a senior police official stationed in Bajaur, a city near the border with Afghanistan. The officials were travelling in a car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when “the attack happ…
Taliban Say They Shot Down US Spy Drone in Afghanistan
TEHRAN (FNA)- Taliban militants claim to have shot down a US spy drone in Eastern Afghanistan, reports said. Zabihollah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said on Saturday that the unmanned aircraft was downed while conducting a surveillance mission in Rodat district of Nangarhar province, press tv reported. Afghan and American officials have not yet commented on the incident. The United States regularly uses drones for assassination strikes and spying missions in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistan’s Northwestern tribal belt near the …
India begins training Afghan commandos in Rajasthan
India is training a group of Afghan special forces in the deserts of Rajasthan, army officials said on Friday, deepening its involvement with Afghanistan as its military prepares to secure the country after NATO’s withdrawal in 2014. Afghan military officers have been attending courses in India for years, but this is the first time members of its special forces have held joint exercises with Indian commandos. Afghanistan has been pressing India for military equipment including helicopters, tanks and field guns as well as greater invol…
Limits of a US-India military alliance amidst a growing challenge from China
In the wake of the ongoing military stand-off between India and China there is considerable debate about the possibility of deeper engagement between New Delhi and Washington. While a deeper strategic relationship is highly probable as result of Chinese military conduct to unilaterally shift the Line Actual Control (LaC), it could fall well short of the Americans fighting alongside Indian forces in a Sino-Indian war. Therefore, whatever optimists about the US-India strategic partnership may conclude, the Modi-led government would be well…
27 militants, 5 soldiers killed in Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Five Pakistani soldiers and at least 27 militants, including some foreigners, were killed on Sunday in clashes and air strikes in the restive northwestern tribal belt, where the military has launched a major offensive against the Taliban. Five soldiers, including one officer, were killed and many others injured in a clash between militants and security forces in Datakhel area, the Dawn reported on Sunday. 27 militants, including some of their important commanders and foreigners, were killed in precise aerial strikes in Da…
Pakistan Taliban chief escapes drone attack
Islamabad, Nov 25: The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah has escaped a US drone strike in Afghanistans Nangarhar province, media reports said on Tuesday Highly placed intelligence sources had told Dawn.com that the unmanned aircraft fired four missiles on a compound in Nazyan village in southeastern Afghanistan Monday night, killing at least five Pakistani and Afghan militants near the Pak-Afghan border. Sources said intelligence reports suggested Mullah Fazllulah had been in the area near the zero-line for ov…
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