Afghanistan

KABUL, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Four Taliban militants have been killed after Afghan Special Operations Forces conducted an airstrike in the country's southern province of Helmand in the latest raid against the Taliban insurgents and their supply lines, command of special forces said Sunday.

"The sortie was launched in Washer district, western part of Helmand province on Saturday. One militants' vehicle and a motorcycle were also destroyed by the strike," Afghan National Army Special Operations Corps said in a statement.

Helmand province is a known Taliban stronghold.

TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Jan 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Security forces repulsed Taliban fighters’ offensive on security checkpoints, in Baharak district of the northern Takhar province, forcing the attacking militants to flee, after suffering casualties, provincial government spokesman, Mohammad Jawad Hajari, said today.

16 January 2020; AFP: The Taliban have offered a brief ceasefire to the US, two insurgent sources said Thursday, a move which could allow for the resumption of talks seeking a deal for Washington to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) The Afghan government is ready to engage in peace talks, but if that call is not answered by those fighting to subvert democracy then they will have to face the full force of the country, Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib said on Wednesday.

His remarks come amid talks between the Taliban and the US-appointed peace negotiator. A direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban is yet to begin.

GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of seven prisoners escaped from a jail in the eastern Paktia province on Sunday, provincial government spokesman Abdullah Hasrat said Monday.

According to the official, the seven detainees escaped the central jail in provincial capital Gardez city late Sunday night and the search for the inmates is currently underway.

However, he didn't say if the escapees were political detainees or criminals, adding investigation has been initiated to determine their identities and the nature of their crimes.

KABUL, Jan 12 (NNN-XINHUA) – Afghan farmers harvested 22 percent more saffron last year than in 2018, hoping the golden spice become a legitimate replacement to poppy opium, in the war-affected country.

This year’s saffron harvests, according to Afghans involved in saffron business, reached to over 19 tonnes, showing 22 percent increase, compared to only 16 tonnes in 2018.

KABUL, Jan 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Two U.S. service members were killed, and two others were wounded, in an explosion in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province on Saturday, the coalition forces confirmed.

“This happened when their vehicle struck an IED, in Kandahar Province,” the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission forces said, in a statement.

Taliban militants have been using home-made improvised explosive devices (IED’s), to make roadside bombs and landmines for targeting security forces.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb hit a convoy of U.S. troops on Saturday in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar, a NATO spokesman and an Afghan official said, but there were no immediate details of casualties in a blast claimed by the Taliban.

Despite a winter lull in fighting due to heavy snowfall in the mountains where the Islamist Taliban typically rest and regroup ahead of their annual spring offensive, roadside bombs continue to hit Afghan forces and their foreign allies.

9 January 2020; AFP: After bearing the brunt of jihadist dynamite and looting by thieves, the archaeological treasures of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province are facing a new and possibly more daunting threat: climate change.

Nestled in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains, the Bamiyan valley's picturesque cliffs -- where centuries-old Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 -- still contain a network of caves housing temples, monasteries, and Buddhist paintings.

TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Jan 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Eighteen fighters, including seven security personnel, have been confirmed dead, as clashes flared up in Darqad district, of the northern Takhar province on Wednesday, police spokesman in the restive province, Abdul Khalil Asir, said.

A group of Taliban insurgents, according to the official, stormed security checkpoints in Qara Tepa area of Darqad district, early this morning triggering a gun battle, which lasted for a couple of hours leaving 18 dead, including seven police and army personnel and 11 militants on the spot.