Tag Archives: Kandahar

Cross-border shelling and gunfire between Afghanistan and Pakistan killed eight Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier on Sunday, officials on both sides of the frontier said, with each side accusing the other of starting the fighting. The Pakistan army said Afghan border forces had opened “unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of …

Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, made a rare public appearance in the southern city of Kandahar, Taliban sources said on Sunday, belying widespread rumors of his death. Akhundzada, known as the leader of the faithful or Amir ul Momineen, had not been seen in public even after the Taliban’s …

Hundreds of protesters from a neighborhood populated by former Afghan army servicemen marched in Kandahar Tuesday against plans by the Taliban to evict them from their homes. Residents of Zara Ferqa, a suburb made up of government housing and ramshackle huts, said they had been ordered to leave by the …

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he was in urgent talks with local leaders and international partners as the Taliban pushed closer to Kabul, capturing a key town south of the capital that is one of the gateways to the city. “As your President, my focus is on preventing further instability, …

Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on Afghanistan on Friday, wresting control of its second and third biggest cities while Western embassies prepared to send in troops to help evacuate staff from the capital, Kabul. The capture of the second-biggest city of Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west …

Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, was on the verge of falling to the Taliban on Thursday amid heavy fighting, as the militant group also established a bridgehead within 150 km (95 miles) of Kabul. The group claimed control over Herat and, in what would be its most significant two victories since …

Taliban captured the city of Ghazni on Thursday, the ninth provincial capital they have seized in a week, as US intelligence said the capital, Kabul, just 150 km to the northeast, could fall to the insurgents within 90 days. The speed of the Taliban advance has sparked widespread recriminations over …

Several rounds of meetings scheduled over three days between Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban as armed group makes advances. The United States envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” at talks in Qatar’s capital this week, the Department of State announced after the …

Taliban fighters overran three provincial capitals including the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz on Sunday, local officials said, as the insurgents intensified pressure on the north and threatened further cities. The insurgents have taken dozens of districts and border crossings in recent months and put pressure on several provincial capitals, …

The Taliban have switched strategy from targeting rural areas of Afghanistan to attacking provincial cities in response to increased US airstrikes across the war-ravaged country, militant sources say. Some media outlets quoting Taliban commanders said on Thursday that they were focused on capturing the western city of Herat, Lashkar Gah, …

Government forces are fighting Taliban assaults on major cities, including in Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, whose airport was bombed by the Taliban. Afghan forces fought fierce street battles and bombed Taliban positions as the group’s fighters swarmed major cities amid an intensifying nationwide offensive. Hundreds of commandos were deployed …

Minutes after returning from a mission on Tuesday before dawn, a convoy of exhausted Afghan commandos were speeding back out of their base to try to extract a wounded policeman trapped by Taliban insurgents on the outskirts of Kandahar. The previous outing had been tense but quiet. This operation in …

More Afghans are likely to flee their homes due to escalating violence, the U.N. refugee agency warned on Tuesday, as the Taliban take control of more territory in response to the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces. “Afghanistan is on the brink of another humanitarian crisis. This can be avoided. This …

The top US general in Afghanistan relinquished command Monday at a ceremony in the capital, the latest symbolic gesture bringing America’s longest war nearer to an end even as the Taliban continue a bloody onslaught across the country. General Austin “Scott” Miller — the highest-ranked officer on the ground in …

India said on Sunday it had temporarily brought back officials from its consulate in Kandahar, a major city in southern Afghanistan, as Taliban fighters continue to gain control amid the withdrawal of international forces. “Due to the intense fighting near Kandahar city, India-based personnel has been brought back for the …

The Taliban have captured a key district in their former bastion of Kandahar after fierce night-time fighting with Afghan government forces, officials said Sunday, the latest area to be seized since US troops began their final withdrawal. The insurgents have pressed on with their campaign to capture territory across Afghanistan’s …

In the heart of territory under siege from the Taliban, one of Afghanistan’s most important hydroelectric dams is at the centre of a power struggle that symbolises the battle between the government and insurgents. Kajaki Dam, which provides power to more than three million people in the south — including …

The United States has completed its withdrawal from Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, once the second-largest military base in the country for US forces, officials said on Friday. “They have not officially handed over the base to us but I can confirm they left the base on Wednesday,” said Khoja …

Kandahar, Kunduz, and Ghazni provinces were rocked by four separate bombings, killing at least 11 civilians. At least 11 civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in four separate bombings in Afghanistan on Thursday, hours after a three-day ceasefire began across the country to mark the Muslim festival of Eid …

A Taliban suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed military vehicle on the approach to the provincial governor’s residence and police headquarters in the Afghan province of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing at least three people, authorities said. Bloodshed is escalating anew in Afghanistan even as the United States tries to broker a …