Afghan police on Sunday launched a search for some 30 villagers still missing two days after a mass kidnapping blamed on Taliban militants in the southern province of Kandahar. Seventy people were abducted Friday from their village along the main road in the south and seven of them were found dead the following day alongside … Read more
Seventy Afghans were abducted Friday from their village along the main highway in the south of the country, and at least seven were killed, police said, accusing the Taliban of the kidnappings. Around 30 villagers have been released but at least 30 others are still missing, Abdul Raziq, the head of Kandahar provincial police told … Read more
Medecins Sans Frontiers in Afghanistan on Saturday reopened a small medical clinic in northern Kunduz province where nearly two years ago a US airstrike destroyed their hospital, killing over 40. The new facility, which has one doctor and five nurses, will only provide outpatient treatment of minor and chronic wounds and is not located at … Read more
Afghan security forces supported by US air power have retaken the center of volatile Nawa district from the Taliban in southern Helmand province, US officials said Monday. Backed by strikes from F-16 fighters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, Afghan troops began the two-day operation Saturday near the city of Lashkar Gar, which is the capital … Read more
At least 15 members of a single family were killed when a pickup truck veered off the road and plunged into a river in northern Afghanistan, officials said. Women and children were among the dead after Saturday’s accident on the main highway between Parwan and Kabul, which is notorious for crashes. Apart from the 15 … Read more
At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week. The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed … Read more
At least 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when militants attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Tuesday, in the latest attack on Western-backed forces. The assault in Shah Wali Kot district late Monday came just a day after 20 Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban fighters stormed their … Read more
At least 11 civilians were killed when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials said Saturday. The blast occurred when the passengers were travelling from remote Nawa district to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Friday, government spokesman Omar Zhwak told AFP. “The blast was powerful … Read more
The number of Islamic State fighters killed by a massive US bomb in eastern Afghanistan has nearly tripled to at least 90, Afghan officials said Saturday. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — dubbed the “Mother Of All Bombs” — was unleashed in combat for the first time, hitting IS positions in eastern Nangarhar … Read more
Taliban fighters captured the strategic southern district of Sangin on Thursday, officials said, another setback for Afghan forces in opium-rich Helmand province ahead of the spring fighting season. The capture of Sangin, where US and British forces suffered heavy casualties until it was handed over to Afghan personnel, marks the culmination of the Taliban’s year-long … Read more
An Afghan policeman linked to the Taliban shot dead 11 of his colleagues at a checkpoint in the southern province of Helmand, officials said Tuesday, in the latest so-called “insider attack”. The incident occurred late Monday as the policemen were sleeping in their barracks in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. “A policeman affiliated to the … Read more
An air strike has killed an Afghan Taliban commander who twice oversaw the capture of a strategic northern city, officials said Monday, in a major blow to the insurgent group. Mullah Abdul Salam Akhund, the Taliban shadow governor in Kunduz province, was killed on Sunday when he was holding a meeting in the volatile Dasht-e-Archi … Read more
The UN voiced “grave concern” Sunday over the killing of at least 25 civilians in the escalating conflict in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand, most of them in US air strikes. American bombardment in Sangin on Thursday and Friday killed 18 people, nearly all women and children, the United Nations said, as fierce fighting … Read more
At least six people were killed Saturday when a Taliban bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into Afghan soldiers who had queued outside a bank in southern Helmand province to collect their salaries, officials said. Nearly two dozen others, including women and children, were wounded in the explosion in the capital Lashkar Gah, many of them … Read more