It was April 1995, and I was preparing to travel to Afghanistan for my first volunteer post with a UK charity. I had travelled to London to meet the Afghanistan director for the non-governmental organisation (NGO) I was going to be working for and now sat in their tiny office facing him. My father had travelled to Afghanistan in the 1970s and loved it. His stories had mesmerised me. After years of dreaming about going to Afghanistan, I would finally be on my way.
The United States is set to resume talks with the Taliban next week in Qatar, discussing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and steps to ensure that the country does not become a “launchpad” for “terrorism”, US State Department Spokesman Ned Price has said.
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 23 (Reuters) – The Taliban have formed a commission to purge “people of bad character” from their ranks to protect Afghanistan’s reputation, the group said on Tuesday, in the latest sign it is trying to change from an insurgency into a regular government.
Talks between German and Dutch officials and the Taliban in Kabul have emphasised the need to improve the “dire humanitarian situation” in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have launched a crackdown on suspected Islamic State hideouts in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday, following an increase in bloody attacks by the group in recent weeks.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Pakistan’s offshoot of the hardline Islamist group has ramped up attacks on its side of the border, leaving Islamabad scrambling to reach a peace deal.
KABUL, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Taliban forces held a military parade in Kabul on Sunday using captured American-made armoured vehicles and Russian helicopters in a display that showed their ongoing transformation from an insurgent force to a regular standing army.
Afghanistan’s ex-finance minister has blamed the government’s fall on corrupt officials who invented “ghost soldiers” and took payments from the Taliban.
Khalid Payenda told the BBC that most of the 300,000 troops and police on the government’s books did not exist.
In the villages that once bore the brunt of Afghanistan’s front-line fighting, the Taliban victory has broken a cycle of air attacks, gun battles and funerals.