Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - Abdullah Abdullah, the bitter rival of Afghanistan’s president-elect Ashraf Ghani, has issued invitations to a parallel swearing-in ceremony due next week, his spokesman said on Saturday.

“We’ve sent the invitation to all national and international organizations and all necessary preparations have been taken,” Fraidoon Khwazoon, Abdullah’s spokesman said on Saturday, referring to invitations to an inauguration ceremony due to take place in Kabul on Monday morning at a similar time to Ghani’s.

KABUL (Reuters) - Unknown gunmen shot and killed three people in Kabul on Sunday, including a member of eastern Logar province’s provincial council, underscoring the ongoing risk of violence despite U.S.-led efforts to negotiate peace with the insurgent Taliban.

“Logar provincial council member, Naser Ghairat and two of his bodyguards were killed and another wounded,” Kabul police spokesman Ferdaus Faramarz said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing in the capital, which has already had a violent few days.

KABUL, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Police in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province arrested five drug traffickers, the country's Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) in coordination with Afghan National Police arrested two men driving a vehicle in Nangarhar's Muhmand Dara district on Saturday after receiving a report that the men was transporting a batch of drugs, the ministry said in a statement.

The CNPA seized 17 kg of heroin and 2.5 kg of methamphetamine and confiscated the vehicle.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire Friday at a ceremony in Afghanistan’s capital attended by prominent political leaders, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens more before the two attackers were slain by police, officials said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website.

KABUL, March 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) - The US military has conducted an air strike against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, just hours after President Donald Trump said he had had a “very good talk” with a leader of the group.

The US signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan after years of war.

But a US forces spokesman said it launched an air strike on Wednesday in response to Taliban fighters attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province.

The Taliban called for de-escalation.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Four Afghan police were killed after the Taliban militants stormed a security checkpoint in Imam Sahib district of the northern Kunduz province on Thursday, head of the provincial council Mohammad Yusuf Ayubi said.

According to Ayubi, the armed insurgents attacked a security checkpoint in Bakhmal Kucha area of the restive district early morning, killing four police and wounding two others.

The governor of Imam Sahib district Mahboubullah Sayedi has confirmed the incident without providing details.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Mar 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) – At least 19 Afghan soldiers and police were feared killed, in Taliban insurgents’ overnight attacks, in two provinces, authorities said today (Wednesday).

In one attack in Kunduz province, 12 Afghan soldiers were killed and four others wounded, after Talibans stormed an army base in Bagh-e-Sherkat, a locality in northern outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city, Fawzia Jawad from the provincial council, said.

Jawad said, several Taliban militants were also killed and wounded during the fierce midnight clashes.

TALUQAN, Afghanistan, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Two militants were killed and three others were injured as a clash erupted in Eshkamish district of the northern Takhar province on Tuesday, a local police commander Abdul Rashid said.

The clash, according to the official, broke out after a group of Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in the Kataqaroq area of the restive district at 04:00 a.m. local time, triggering a gun battle which lasted for 40 minutes. and resultantly two militants were killed.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Now that the U.S. has signed a deal with the Taliban to eventually leave Afghanistan, it will soon be up to Afghans on both sides of the conflict to decide what peace will look like.

The stakes are high.

The big question for many — and particularly those who remember the religiously repressive Taliban rule that ended with the U.S. invasion in 2001 — is whether the newly emboldened militants have changed their ideology. Women, especially in the cities, worry that their rights will be bargained away.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected on Sunday a Taliban demand for the release of 5,000 prisoners as a condition for talks with Afghanistan’s government and civilians, included in a deal between the United States and the Islamist militants.

“The government of Afghanistan has made no commitment to free 5,000 Taliban prisoners,” Ghani told reporters in Kabul, a day after the deal was signed in Qatar to start a political settlement aimed at ending the United States’ longest war.