Afghanistan

(Reuters) --- Afghan security forces fought back a huge Taliban offensive in southern Helmand province in the last 24 hours, officials and residents said on Tuesday, as militants launched assaults around the country following a missed U.S. deadline to withdraw troops.

KABUL, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Sunday handed over a key operating base to Afghan National Army in restive southern Helmand province, reported local media.

"Camp Antonik in Helmand province was officially handed over to the Afghan army's 215 Maiwand Corps on Sunday," Tolo News TV reported.

With no change in its name, the camp will be used as a base for Afghan Special Operations Forces, the report said.

Helmand province, notorious for poppy growing, is a known Taliban insurgents' stronghold.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A fire roared through several fuel tankers on the northern edge of the Afghan capital late Saturday, injuring at least 10 people and plunging much of the city into darkness, officials said.

It wasn’t immediately known if the fire was accidental or intentional coming on the official start of the final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, ending America’s longest war. The Interior Ministry said Sunday the incident is under investigation.

KABUL, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has assured Afghanistan during a visit to Kabul of continued support after the withdrawal of NATO troops.

“Germany remains a reliable partner on the side of the people in Afghanistan,” Maas said after his arrival on Thursday.

KABUL, Apr 28 (NNN-XINHUA) – Seventeen Taliban militants were killed and 12 others wounded, when government forces attacked their positions, in Afghanistan’s eastern Ghazni province, the country’s Defence Ministry confirmed today.

The ministry said, the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF), supported by the Afghan Air Force, targeted the Taliban from ground and air in Arezo, a locality on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Ghazni city, yesterday.

MAIDAN SHAR, Apr 27 (NNN-XINHUA) – At least 10 militants were killed, as a bomb went off in the group’s hideout, in Day Mirdad district, of the eastern Wardak province yesterday, said an army statement here, today.

“A bomb went off in a hideout of the Taliban militants in Dadu Khil village of Day Mirdad district, and, as a result, 10 rebels, including a group commander, Mullah Mansoor, were killed and several others injured,” the statement said.

(Reuters) --- U.S. lawmakers will grill President Joe Biden's envoy for Afghanistan on Tuesday about how the administration plans to ensure women's rights will be protected if the hardline Islamist Taliban take control after U.S. troops withdraw later this year.

Zalmay Khalilzad, special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, will testify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the panel's first public hearing on the administration's Afghanistan policy since Biden announced plans to withdraw troops by Sept. 11 after two decades of war.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Tribal elder Dawlat Khan still has nightmares about fighters from the local affiliate of the global Islamic State terror network who swept across his and other villages in eastern Afghanistan five years ago.

25 Apr 2021; MEMO: Gen. Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan, announced on Sunday that foreign troops have begun vacating military bases in the war-ravaged country, Anadolu Agency reported.

Commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan told a press conference in Kabul that the US and Allied forces will hand over all their bases to the Afghan forces.

HERAT, Afghanistan, April 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 20 Taliban militants were killed or injured as their explosive device went off in Pashton Zarghon district of western Herat province on Sunday, provincial governor Sayed Wahid Qatali said.

The blast took place inside a mosque where a group of Taliban militants were busy making suicide vests and mines to conduct subversive activities, Qatali told reporters without providing more details.

The Taliban militants who are largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings have yet to confirm the claim.