Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosion ripped through a mosque inside an Afghan army base in the country’s volatile eastern Khost province as Friday prayers were drawing to a close, killing 27 soldiers and wounding 57, the military said.

The blast may have been set off by a suicide bomber or a remotely detonated bomb but nothing was officially confirmed and details were sketchy. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — When U.S. forces and their Afghan allies rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But after 17 years of war, the Taliban have retaken half the country, security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame squarely on the Americans.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — American military officials say a member of the Utah National Guard has been killed in an apparent “insider attack” in the capital of Afghanistan.

The officials say another U.S. service member is being treated for wounds sustained in the attack in Kabul on Saturday.

A statement from a spokeswoman for the NATO-led Operation Resolute Support says the attacker was a member of the Afghan security forces and that initial reports indicate the assailant was immediately killed by other Afghan forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan army helicopter crashed Wednesday in bad weather in the western Farah province, killing all 25 people on board, including the deputy corps commander of the western zone, a provincial spokesman said.

Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the Farah governor, said the helicopter crashed around 9:10 a.m. (0440 GMT), shortly after taking off from the mountainous Anar Dara district heading toward the nearby Herat province.

KABUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Afghan voters cast their ballots on Saturday for long-delayed parliamentary elections in the militancy-plagued country amid reports of security threats and irregularities.

The polling, according to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), started at 7:00 a.m. local time and will continue until 4:00 p.m. local time.

The voting, according to the IEC, continued smoothly as of midday amid tight security.

The IEC is likely to extend the voting time as scores of polling centers opened later than the expected time in the morning.

KABUL, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Militancy and counter-militancy have left 39 people dead, mostly the armed opposition fighters, in the conflict-riddled Afghanistan over the past two days, officials said Friday.

In the latest waves of violent incident, 16 people including six security personnel and 10 militants have lost their lives as clash erupted in Dasht-e-Archi district of the northern Kunduz province on Friday, district governor Nasrudin Nazari said.

According to the official, eight more security personnel have been injured in the fighting.

KABUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Air Force in chasing militants have conducted series of sorties in the southern and northern provinces, killing more than 60 armed insurgents and injuring scores of others over the past 24 hours, officials said Thursday.

In the latest waves of airstrikes, the Afghan fighting aircrafts pounded a Taliban hideout in the outskirts of Tirin Kot, the capital of the southern Uruzgan province in the wee hours of Thursday, killing 17 insurgents and injuring countless others, an army spokesman in the southern region Mohammad Sadeq Eisa said.

Kabul, Sep 4 (AFP) The Taliban announced Tuesday the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former CIA asset whose eponymous militant group is now considered one of the most dangerous factions fighting Afghan and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani network was founded by Jalaluddin, an Afghan mujahideen commander fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s with the help of the United States and Pakistan.

By RAHIM FAIEZ

KABUL, Afghanistan; 18 Aug 2018; (AP) — The leader of the Taliban said Saturday there will be no peace in Afghanistan as long as the foreign “occupation” continues, reiterating the group’s position that the 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States.

In a message released in honor of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzadah said the group remains committed to “Islamic goals,” the sovereignty of Afghanistan and ending the war.

KABUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 45 Afghan security force members were killed after Taliban militants stormed a joint military camp in northern Baghlan province overnight, reported local media Tolo News TV on Wednesday.