Some 169 Taliban commanders surrendered to the Afghan government in the past two months in western Afghanistan, we were told on Tuesday February 28, 2006. Under an amnesty launched by President Hamid Karzai in November 2004, hundreds of anti-government militants have surrendered to government.

A deadly prison siege in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, which left five dead and injured 23 prisoners, ended on Wednesday March 2, 2006, after authorities took control of the jail.
The riot began late on Saturday in a block of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of the capital after prisoners refused to put on new uniforms, delivered in response to a breakout last month by seven Taliban prisoners who had disguised themselves as visitors. The jail is home to more than 1,300 inmates, including about 350 Al-Qaida and Taliban members.

.Afghan Education Ministry said on March 28, 2006, that unidentified armed group set ablaze 43 schools during last year. Most of the schools were in Kandahar, Helmand, Logar, Sarabal, Laghman and Kunar provinces where majority of the attacks are carried out on official buildings. Afghan officials hold Taliban responsible for these incidents, however no body has so far been arrested. Several teachers have lost their lives in attack.

Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini said on March 28, 2006, he will ask his government to grant the Afghani Christian convert Abdul Rahman hospitality in Italy. Abdul Rahman, a Christian for 16 years, was charged with rejecting Islam but his case was reportedly dismissed because of gaps in evidence. Under Afghanistan's Sharia law, he could have faced execution.

The Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity received asylum in Italy Wednesday March 29, 2006, despite requests by lawmakers in Afghanistan that he be barred from fleeing the conservative Muslim country. Abdul Rahman arrived in Rome days after he was freed from a high-security prison on the outskirts of Kabul after a court dropped charges of apostasy against him for lack of evidence and suspected mental illness.

Afghanistan's national income per capita in the past 12 months had reached 293 US dollars and it's widely anticipated that it will increase to 335 US dollars for the next following year, DAB President Noorullah Delaware said on April 2, 2006. Mr. Delaware said the growth rate of the economy last year was 14 percent and the growth rate was 8 percent.

On April 17, 2006, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the killing of seven civilians in the biggest joint local and coalition operation - operation Mountain Lion - involving about 2,500 troops from the US-led coalition and the Afghan army backed by British and US warplanes- against insurgents in months. US forces in Afghanistan have launched an investigation into the deaths of seven civilians during an offensive against Taliban and other militants over the weekend. Karzai expressed his sadness about the killing of civilians in the eastern province of Kunar.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai marked the 14th anniversary of the defeat of a communist government on Friday April 28, 2006, with a call to the Taliban to give up their insurgency and rejoin society.

On Sunday May 21, 2006, the parliament rejected the government's budget after Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi told legislators that international donors would not agree to raise the salaries of teachers and other government workers. This is the first year the government has had to seek the elected legislators' approval for the annual budget.

A former governor and an ex-police chief of the Paktia province have been abducted on Monday May 22, 2006, in the latest of a string of such kidnappings usually blamed on Taliban insurgents. The men were kidnapped in neighbouring Ghazni province. No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Iraq's new prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, said on Tuesday June 6, 2006, his government would free 2,500 detainees, in a move that appeared designed to reduce sectarian tension and appease the country's once dominant Sunni community.

Thailand has offered to reconstruct the ancient world-heritage Buddha statues destroyed by Afghanistan's former Taliban regime in 2001, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin said on June 18, 2006.

On June 22, 2006, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has urged the international community to reassess how it is fighting the Taliban and their allies. His comments came as the US military said four more of its soldiers had been killed in northeastern Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Afghanistan on June 28, 2006, to show continued American support in President Hamid Karzai's battle against remnants of the Taliban regime.

The United States said on July 2, 2006, it was giving $2 billion worth of military weapons and vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's national army. At the ceremony in Kabul, Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin said the military donation was in addition to the more than $2 billion the United States has already committed for military equipment and facilities to Afghanistan.

Visiting Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and President Hamid Karzai discussed on July 12, 2006, the spike in violence in Afghanistan the last several months. Rumsfeld said resurgent Taliban forces ``won't succeed," while Karzai stressed his country needed continued US support, particularly to strengthen Afghanistan's weak police force.

Here is a chronology of NATO's presence in Afghanistan up to July 24, 2006.
- October 7, 2001: US-led forces begin bombing Afghanistan to root out Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and its Taliban protectors. Washington does not take up NATO's offer of help concerned the consensus-based alliance would slow it down.
- August 2003: NATO takes command of the UN-mandated ISAF force in Afghanistan in the alliance's first mission outside the Euro-Atlantic area. Its presence is initially limited to the capital, Kabul.
- December 2003 ISAF expands north with a pilot provincial reconstruction team (PRT) under German leadership in Kunduz.
- October 13, 2004: Transatlantic differences emerge over NATO's role in Afghanistan as France and Germany reject a US proposal for an outright merger of ISAF and the US-led coalition fighting remnants of the Taliban.
- September 14, 2005: A new US bid to deepen NATO's role is thwarted as France, Germany and other European members block ISAF from taking part in counter-terror missions to hunt insurgents.
- May 31, 2005: After months of delays as it struggles to find volunteers for the move, NATO expands to the west with four bases in Herat, Farah, Chagcharan and Qala-i-Naw.
- December 8, 2005: Washington continues to advocate a greater NATO role. The alliance prepares a future move into the south and east by approving tougher rules of engagement, allowing troops to deal more aggressively with the enemy.
- June 29, 2006: Amid rising violence, ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards said the world underestimated a resurgent Taliban largely because of the Iraq war.
- July 10, 2006: Britain announces it will send 900 extra troops and additional helicopters to southern Afghanistan, bringing its total deployment there to some 5,500.
- July 31, 2006: Expected date for formal transfer of authority from the US-led coalition forces in the south to NATO.
- Late 2006: US troops in eastern Afghanistan are expected to join ISAF, effectively putting the whole of foreign military operations in the country under ISAF command.

Afghanistan ordered hundreds of South Korean Christians to leave the country, accusing them Thursday August 3, 2006, of seeking to undermine its Islamic culture. The group's leader, Choi Han-woo, denied the 1,200 South Koreans, who had gathered in Afghanistan for relief work and a cultural festival, took part in any religious activities. Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai said the Koreans entered the country with tourist visas, but their activities showed they had a different agenda.

After months of widespread frustration in Afghanistan over corruption, the economy and a lack of justice and security, doubts about President Hamid Karzai have led in August 2006 to a crisis of confidence in the country. Interviews with ordinary Afghans, foreign diplomats and Afghan officials make clear that the expanding Taliban insurgency in the south represents the most serious challenge yet to Karzai's presidency. The insurgency has precipitated an eruption of doubts about Karzai, widely viewed as having failed to attend to a range of problems that have left Afghans asking what the government is doing. Corruption is so widespread, the government apparently so lethargic, and the divide between rich and poor so great, that Karzai is losing public support.

About 125,000 refugees have returned to Afghanistan this year until September 4, 2006, with the majority coming back from Pakistan and Iran. 295,000 Afghans returned home last year. UNHCR estimates that 2.5 million Afghans are still in Pakistan, while another 900,000 are in Iran. Many have lived in exile for more than 20 years. The number of Afghan refugees accounts for over 40 percent of the total 8 million under the UNHCR's mandate. In the past five years, more than 4.6 million Afghan refugees have returned home. Many Afghans fled their homeland during the Soviet invasion war from 1979 to 1989, during the following Afghan civil war and the US-led war against the Taliban in late 2001.

NATO said on Sunday October 1, 2006, it will soon assume direct control over most military operations in Afghanistan, a move that will place 12,000 more US troops under its authority. The expansion will consolidate military command under top NATO leader British Lt. Gen. David Richards and phase out the role of US Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, whose troops will be transferred to NATO. Of the 40,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, only 8,000 US troops will function outside NATO control: those tracking al-Qaida terrorists or involved in air operations. The overall level of American forces will remain around 20,000.

The governor of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan criticised the UK government on October 23, 2006, for lack of development projects in the area. UK defence secretary, Des Browne, said there had been considerable investment but the impact of projects took time. He said £30m had been invested into schools, health and utilities locally.

Dutch prosecutors on Monday October 23, 2006, asked for a four-month prison sentence for a 21-year-old soldier who has refused to serve in Afghanistan. The soldier, identified as J. Wegenaar, is appearing before the military chamber of the Arnhem district court. His lawyers told the court that he had refused to serve because the Dutch army had not provided proper psychological care following an earlier mission in Afghanistan. They said Wegenaar was still suffering psychological problems from his first tour of duty between October 2004 and January 2005.

In spite of new appeals by NATO, the German government still refuses on November 15, 2006, to deploy German soldiers to the war-raged South of Afghanistan. The focus of the German forces in Afghanistan will remain the North of the country.
A report published on November 27, 2006, found that despite recent advances in the country's education system, more than half of Afghan children still do not attend school and only one in 20 girls go to secondary school.
On Tuesday December 12, 2006, President Hamid Karzai accused neighbouring Pakistan of being the Taliban's "boss.
On December 19, 2006, the Afghan government fired the governor of its biggest drug-producing province, a centre of Taliban resistance that has seen some of the country's heaviest fighting this year, officials said yesterday. Helmand Governor Mohammad Daud, who has led the province that grows more than a third of the world's opium, was replaced over the weekend.

On February 5, 2007, we were told that more than five years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the plundering of Afghanistan's archaeological sites and museums not only continues but has evolved into a sophisticated trade that could be financing the country's warlords and insurgents.

A group of lawmakers on Monday February 5, 2007, denounced a non-binding resolution passed by Afghanistan's lower house of parliament calling for amnesty for warlords and other Afghans accused of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting. The resolution, which was criticized by UN officials when it passed by a show of hands last week, has no chance of winning passage in parliament's upper house, the nine lawmakers predicted.

A controversial bill granting amnesty to groups that allegedly committed war crimes was signed into law Saturday March 10, 2007, by Afghan President Hamid Karzai after being approved earlier in the day by the Afghan parliament, which includes many former militia leaders. The resolution bars the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes absent accusation from an alleged victim. It also extends immunity to all groups involved in pre-2002 conflicts, as opposed to only leaders of various factions alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1980s resistance against Soviet forces and war crimes committed during the country's civil war. The Taliban and other human rights violators active before the establishment of the December 2001 Interim Administration in Afghanistan are protected under the bill. Critics say the law may violate Afghanistan's constitution as well as certain international human rights treaties. MPs opposing the bill reportedly were threatened by former militiamen in the national assembly.

More than 1,400 artefacts -protected from looters and the Taliban since 1999 at a museum-in-exile in Switzerland- were returned to the National Museum of Afghanistan on Saturday March 17, 2007. The collection, which includes a piece from a foundation stone that was "touched by Alexander the Great" and several items thousands of years old, was assembled in Switzerland by Afghans who wanted to save their cultural heritage after decades of war. The oldest artefact dates back 3,500 years, and the collection spans "countless" empires to which Afghanistan once belonged. The Swiss museum, which received about 50,000 visitors since opening in 2000, is now closed.

President Hamid Karzai said on April 9, 2007, he had met with members of the Taliban movement to bring reconciliation to his country. Karzai said Taliban representatives had been regularly meeting with government bodies, adding: "I have had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well, so this process has been there for a long time." But he ruled out talks with Taliban supreme Mullah Mohammad Omar, a close ally of Al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden, or with foreign militants.

Italian aid organization Emergency pulled its international staff out of Afghanistan on April 13, 2007, amid a quarrel with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, local media reported. Emergency, which played a crucial role in securing the release of a kidnapped Italian journalist, said in a statement it had flown some 40 non-Afghan aid workers to Dubai.

On April 15, came several weeks after Kabul freed five Taliban fighters in exchange for an Italian journalist kidnapped in early March, the Afghan government said that such exchange of prisoners for hostages will stop. The Taliban executed two Afghans kidnapped along with the Italian journalist. Kabul is meanwhile still trying to win the release of two French aid workers and three Afghan colleagues seized by the Taliban. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that kidnapping could become an "industry" for Taliban fighters if authorities in Kabul continue to swap Taliban prisoners for hostages.

NATO risks losing the war in Afghanistan because of a "tremendous deterioration" in the popularity of the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai, the former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke said Saturday April 28, 2007.

The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, frequently at odds over how to cope with a resurgent Taliban, agreed Monday April 30, 2007, to fight terrorism and deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both countries. Brought together by Turkish leaders, the pair issued a joint statement stressing a mutual commitment to fighting terrorism after meeting at Turkey's presidential palace.

Afghanistan's parliament has sacked the foreign minister on Saturday May 12, 2007, amid controversy over Iran's forced return of thousands of refugees. Rangeen Dadfar Spanta has lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority in a second round of voting, after a first round on Thursday hinged on a single spoilt ballot. The Refugees Affairs Minister lost his job in Thursday's vote.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani ambassador on May 14 to receive Afghanistan's "strong protest" over "provocative" actions by Pakistan. Afghanistan also sent an "official complaint" letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon regarding what it described as "flagrant interference and irresponsible actions by the Pakistani" military. Kabul claims that Pakistani forces entered Afghan territory and destroyed border posts, erecting their own posts in their place. According to the Afghan authorities, 13 Afghans, including six border policemen, have been killed in two days of clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces. Defence Ministry spokesman Azimi said that in fighting on May 14, Afghan forces killed eight Pakistani soldiers and captured five. But Pakistani military spokesman Arshad said that no clashes occurred between Pakistani and Afghan forces on May 14. The clashes have been taking place along a stretch of the Afghan-Pakistani border where Pakistan is erecting fences to stop militants and smugglers from moving illegally between the two countries. Kabul vehemently rejects the installation of fences or other barriers, because such measures would presumably lend legitimacy to a boundary that it is not properly demarcated and that Afghanistan does not officially recognize.

On May 18, 2007, we were told that in the past three weeks, Iran has forcefully deported 85,000 Afghan refugees back over Afghanistan's southern and southeastern borders, where fighting between the Taliban and coalition forces is escalating. And in neighbouring Pakistan, security forces yesterday killed four Afghan refugees during an eviction drive at a camp in Balochistan. The forceful evictions of the refugees, who have lived in Iran and Pakistan for nearly three decades, are part of the two countries' larger plans to repatriate all Afghan refugees within a few years. Iran says it will send back one million by next March. Pakistan, according to local media reports, plans to use force and economic sanctions to compel thousands of Afghans to leave camps that many call home.

The world must remain engaged in Afghanistan until the country manages to stand on its own feet or "terrorists" will strike again, President Hamid Karzai warned on Tuesday May 22, 2007. Karzai said the world, and in particular the West, needed to stay in Afghanistan to help Afghans, but also for its own security.

British Defence Secretary Des Browne said on July 18, 2007, UK-led NATO forces are facing "problems" in Afghanistan but there was no question of troops being pulled out. He warned it would be a "potential nightmare" for the west if Afghanistan was allowed to become a terrorist "training ground" as it was before. Equipment shortages and fears the Taliban are gaining strength.

The former King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, died at the age of 92 on July 23, 2007, following a long illness. President Hamid Karzai announced three days of mourning. He said Zahir Shah had been a symbol of national unity. Zahir Shah was deposed in 1973 and went into exile. He returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban but was given no official role.

Internal security and the US-led war on terror are high up on the agenda of a meeting next month between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his US counterpart, George W. Bush, at Camp David. The two presidents are to meet August 5-6 at the U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland. It will be Karzai's first visit to Camp David since he was appointed leader. The Pashtun Taliban have regrouped in southern Afghanistan to challenge the Afghan government and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The worsening conflict has claimed some 300 civilian lives this year. Retaliatory suicide attacks have targeted US and NATO convoys. The Karzai government has time and again accused Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf of providing the Taliban a safe haven in the Pashtun-dominated Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The finance ministers of Russia and Afghanistan on Monday August 6, 2007, signed an agreement under which the Kremlin writes off 90 percent of Afghanistan's US$11 billion debt and raises the possibility of writing off the remainder. Russia is by far the biggest creditor nation for Afghanistan, mostly for weapon sales during the Soviet era, and the debt-forgiveness arrangement is a significant boon for the country.

President Bush and President Karzai, close allies in fighting terrorism, found much to agree on as they completed a two-day meeting here on Monday August 6, 2007, with one major exception: the role of Iran in Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai characterized Iran as "a helper". Mr. Bush pointedly disagreed, saying, "I would be very cautious about whether the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force."

On August 8, 2007, we were told that Afghanistan is at odds with a US strategy to stem opium production that is funding the Taliban and other militants. While the Bush administration is seeking to expand efforts to destroy opium poppy plants, Afghanistan wants to emphasize long-term crop substitution.

First we had the reports that the US was unhappy with Britain's prospective withdrawal from Basra, leaving a vacuum American forces would have to fill. Now it appears that the British are none too pleased with American tactics in Afghanistan.

A four-day conference of some 600 Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders that concluded Sunday August 12, 2007, in Kabul was a belated recognition that a more supple strategy is needed to defend Afghanistan against renewed assaults from Taliban extremists. One breakthrough of the peace jirga was that it drew a rare public acknowledgment from President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan that Taliban militants have been using tribal areas inside Pakistan as safe havens from which to launch attacks into Afghanistan.

On August 13, 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied US allegations that Iranian weapons are finding their way into the hands of the Taliban. Mr Ahmadinejad, on a visit to Kabul, said that Tehran strongly supported the political process in Afghanistan. He held talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, on the first leg of a tour that will also take him to Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan. This is Mr Ahmadinejad's first visit to Afghanistan since he was elected.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, on august 15, 2007, in a demonstration of growing Iranian influence in Afghanistan. The visit -Mr Ahmadinejad's first to Afghanistan- is certain to alarm the Bush administration, which accuses Tehran of destabilising its efforts and claims the Taliban is being armed with Iranian weapons. Iran, which is mainly Shia, denies helping the Taliban, whose puritanical Sunni ideology it has condemned.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai led his country's Independence Day celebrations -independence from the British- Sunday August 19, 2007, with a call for young Afghans to educate themselves to preserve their freedom. Afghanistan served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won independence from British control on August 19th of 1919.

On August 26, 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is lashing out at his American critics. He specifically mentioned Senators Hillary Clinton of New York, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan. Both have called for his ouster. The prime minister said they do not understand the political situation in Iraq. Several Senators from both political parties said they also have concerns about the pace of political progress in Iraq, though some said the fault does not necessarily lie directly with Mr. Maliki.

American troops in Afghanistan have been accused of insulting Islam after footballs bearing the name of Allah, flags from around the world and the Koranic declaration of faith known as the shahada, were dropped from helicopters as gifts. About 100 people demonstrated in the south eastern province of Khost after clerics criticised the US for insensitivity. Mirwais Yasini, an MP, said: "To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country." A US military spokesman said that the footballs were intended to be gifts for Afghan children adding: "Unfortunately, there was something on those footballs we didn't immediately understand to be offensive and we regret that."

On September 29, 2007, President Hamid Karzai condemned a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 30 people and wounded many others. Mr. Karzai also offered to personally meet with Taliban and insurgent leaders and to give militants government posts in return for peace.

On Sunday October 7, 2007, Afghanistan ended a three-year moratorium on the death penalty with the execution of 15 prisoners, including a man convicted of murdering Australian cameraman Harry Burton and other foreign journalists. The mass execution was by firing squad. Crimes committed by those executed included murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. Until it was ousted in late 2001, Afghanistan's Taliban regime carried out public executions. The new Government halted executions, and had carried out only one previously, in 2004.

On October 12, 2007, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai expressed concern about the recent upsurge in fighting in Pakistan's border tribal district of Waziristan. Mr Karzai said the violence would have an impact on both countries.

Afghan authorities shut down two Afghan private security companies, Watan and Caps, where 82 illegal weapons were found during the two raids in Kabul, on October 12, 2007, and said more than 10 others -some suspected of murder and robbery- would soon be closed. Some major Western companies are on the list of at least 10 others tapped for closure.

Afghanistan, starting October 16, 2007, is hosting an international governmental conference for the first time in decades. Officials from the 10 member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) are gathering in the western Afghan city of Herat for the five-day conference continuing through October 20. The organization brings together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, and the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

A regional conference on trade among nations in the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) began on Wednesday October 17, 2007, in Afghanistan, the first such major gathering to be held there. Iran, Turkey and Pakistan are the founding members of the organisation, which was set up in 1985 and now includes seven other regional nations, Afghanistan among them. In addition to investment, transit facilitation and trade, officials from the group are also expected to discuss exploration and export of gas and oil. ECO member Turkmenistan for years has been keen to export its gas to Pakistan and beyond through Afghanistan, but the multi-billion dollar project has been held up due to insecurity in the country.

Hundreds of Afghans staged a protest against the United States on Wednesday October 17, 2007, saying US troops had thrown away a copy of the Koran during an operation in the southeast. The protests come as anti-US sentiments are running high following the deaths of more than 370 civilians this year during operations by Western troops.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Herat on Saturday October 20, 2007, stressed the strong bonds between the two nations. Karzai reiterated Kabul's strategy for consolidating all-out ties with the Islamic Republic. He voiced pleasure in the two countries' profound and cordial relations. The Afghan president called for the removal of impediments to the further expansion of bilateral ties between the two neighbouring states.

On October 25, 2007, President Hamid Karzai said he wants the US military to limit airstrikes against insurgents because they are killing too many civilians. Civilian casualties in Afghanistan fuel resentment of foreign forces and Karzai's Western-backed government. He has repeatedly asked US and NATO troops to do everything they can to minimize civilian deaths.

The presidential advisor and former director of the Anti-Narcotics Organization Fadahossein Maliki is soon to be sent to Kabul as the new Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan we were told on October 30, 2007. Maliki will replace Mohammad Reza Bahrami, the current Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan. Maleki was dismissed from his post earlier this year as the director of the Anti-Narcotics Organization.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on November 3, 2007. Merkel in Kabul for a one-day trip, pledging more German funding for the build-up of Afghanistan's security forces. Merkel was on her first trip to Afghanistan since becoming chancellor two years ago. She will seek another parliamentary mandate later this month to extend Germany's commitment to combating Taliban insurgents, an operation distinct from its peace-keeping role.

The Shiite factions that have feuded over control of Basra have proclaimed a truce on December 10, 2007, but the challenge will come soon when Britain hands responsibility for the province to Iraqi forces. The handover of security in Basra, expected next week, will be the biggest test yet of the Iraqi government's ability to maintain order without relying on US or British soldiers. US and British forces have already handed eight of Iraq's 18 provinces over to Iraqi control. But Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, only port and oil exports providing most of the government's revenue, is a challenge of a different scale. By the middle of next year will have just a token force of 2,500 troops, confined to an airbase outside Basra city.

Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, will shortly be named the United Nations' new envoy to Afghanistan we were told on January 16, 2008.

Taliban Thursday January 17, 2008, said Paddy Ashdown, who was appointed as United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan, was only a spokesman for the western countries. Zabihullah Mujahed, the spokesman of Taliban militants, said in a public statement that Ashdown does not come to Afghanistan for peace but the benefits for the America and its western alliances.

Politician and former soldier Paddy Ashdown on Sunday January 27, 2008, withdrew from the contest to be United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan after Kabul said it favoured a NATO commander for the post.

The European public needs convincing that Nato's mission in Afghanistan is part of a wider fight against global terror, the US defence secretary said on February 10, 2008 adding that the future of Nato was at risk if it became a "two-tiered alliance" of countries which fought, and those that did not.

The Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai controls just 30 percent of the country, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday February 27, 2008. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the resurgent Taliban controls 10 percent to 11 percent of the country and Karzai's government controls 30 percent to 31 percent. But more than six years after the U.S. invasion to oust the Taliban and establish a stable central government, the majority of Afghanistan's population remains under local tribal control.

A senior Norwegian Foreign Ministry official, Kai Eide, a former Norwegian ambassador to NATO, will be named the U.N.'s new envoy to Afghanistan we were told on Thursday March 6, 2008. The United Nations is looking for someone to replace Britain's Paddy Ashdown, whose appointment was vetoed last month by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Some $10bn in aid promised to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban has still to be delivered we were told on March 25, 2008. Two-thirds of aid bypasses the Afghan government and forty per cent of aid goes back to donor countries in consultant fees and expatriate pay. As a result the prospects for peace in Afghanistan are being undermined.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai hinted Sunday April 6, 2008, that he plans to run for a second term, saying he has goals left to accomplish. His government is widely seen as weak. In diplomatic circles, Karzai is sometimes referred to as the "Mayor of Kabul," a reference to his control of the capital but weak authority in remote areas of the country.
On April 23, 2008, the Afghan parliament is considering a law to ban makeup, men's jeans, long hair and couples talking in public, amid fears that the country is sliding back to Taliban-style rules and conservative power. The proposal is seen as part of a wider push for Islamic values by Afghanistan's ruling religious elite. The law, hopefully, should boost moral and religious values for Afghan people.

On May 5, 2008, authorities in Kabul have arrested two Afghan government workers for alleged involvement in last week's failed plot to kill President Hamid Karzai. The government employees who were arrested were low-ranking workers in the Defence and Interior ministries. Karzai escaped unharmed, but three others were killed in the attack. One of the arrested government workers is a man named Jawed from Kapisa Province, north of Kabul. Jawed repaired weapons at an Afghan Defence Ministry factory. Jawed provided two AK-47 assault rifles and a machine gun to three gunmen who attacked Karzai during a Kabul military parade on April 27.

On Sunday May 25, 2008, Afghans in two cities demonstrated against a U.S. sniper in Iraq who used a Quran, the Muslim holy book, for target practice. The protests involved several hundred people but were not violent.

World donors pledged 20 billion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan on Thursday June 12, 2008, but also called on President Hamid Karzai to do more to fight corruption and strengthen the rule of law. Karzai asked donors to finance part of a 50-billion-dollar development plan over the next five years to counter widespread poverty and a Taliban insurgency. The United States offered 10.2 billion dollars over the next two years.

Iraq's three-member Presidency Council on Wednesday July 23, 2008, rejected a provincial election bill a day after it was adopted in parliament, making it all but certain that polls due in October will be delayed. The Presidency Council, which includes President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, has the power to veto legislation.

India announced on August 4, 2008, fresh aid of $450 million to Afghanistan for development projects and both countries vowed to fight terrorism, weeks after a deadly attack at the Indian embassy in Kabul. Afghanistan, India and the United States have accused Pakistan's spy agency of being involved in the July bombing that killed at least 58 people, including two Indian diplomats.

A soldier with the US-led coalition -probably American- died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan Friday August 22, 2008; five civilians and 25 militants were killed in clashes involving air strikes against the Taliban.

A roadside bomb killed 10 civilians in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday August 23, 2008. The attack took place in the Shah Wali Kot district to the north of the city of Kandahar.

A NATO-chartered helicopter crashed on Sunday August 24, 2008, in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan, causing one death. The civilian helicopter crashed soon after taking off from a military base in an area. We have no details about the type of the helicopter, number of people on board or identity of the casualties.

President Hamid Karzai on Saturday August 23, 2008, saidd an airstrike by U.S.-led forces killed 76 Afghan civilians. Civilian casualties are an extremely sensitive subject in Afghanistan, where the government has repeatedly pleaded with Western troops to exercise greater care to avoid injuring and killing noncombatants. Karzai broke down in tears during one such appeal.

Tensions increased on August 26, 2008, between Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, and US and Nato troops, with the government ordering a review of foreign military activities amid claims that dozens of civilians have died in raids and air strikes over the past week. The ministries of foreign affairs and defence said they would seek to regulate raids with a status of forces agreement and a negotiated end to "air strikes on civilian targets, uncoordinated house searches and illegal detention of Afghan civilians". The UN mission in Afghanistan has backed the government.

The US military handed Anbar province, once the centre of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, to Iraqi control on September 1, 2008. More than a quarter of all US soldiers killed in Iraq have died in Anbar, which is Iraq's biggest province. With Anbar's transfer Iraqi forces will control security in 11 of the country's 18 provinces.

At least 100 Afghan policemen and government officials, including a deputy provincial governor, were poisoned after eating their evening meal on September 20, 2008. Taliban claimed they had carried out the mass poisoning but NATO's military force, which offered medical treatment, said it was believed to be a straightforward case of food poisoning. They had all eaten food prepared in the kitchen of the governor which feeds some provincial authorities and police who guard the compound.

As the Afghan war intensifies and American commanders call for increased troop levels, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday September 30, 2008, that he had repeatedly sought the intervention of the Saudi royal family to bring the Taliban to peace negotiations. Mr. Karzai said his appeals had failed to yield any talks. There was no indication that senior Taliban leaders were ready for talks on any grounds that the Karzai government and its Western backers would be likely to accept. On the contrary, the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued a new call on Monday for Afghans to continue their "holy war" against American and other Western troops.

On October 1, 2008, we were told that the escalating insurgency in Afghanistan is being spearheaded by a trio of warlords -Mullah Mohammed Omar, the former leader of the Taliban government in Afghanistan; Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Islamic hard-liner who briefly served as prime minister in the 1990s; and Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time Taliban Cabinet minister whose tribal group was behind some of this year's most brazen attacks in Afghanistan- who came to prominence in the CIA-backed war to oust the Soviets but who now direct attacks against US forces from safe havens in Pakistan. Despite a flurry of US airstrikes and million-dollar bounties on their heads, the Pashtun chieftains have been able to expand their networks, largely unmolested, from bases along the border of Pakistan. The three are generally not blamed for a surge of violence within Pakistan; instead, the warlords are generally seen as exporters of violence to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was officially elected to the board of the UN atomic watchdog on Friday October 3, 2008, after the rival candidate for the seat, Syria, agreed to pull out of the race.

On October 3, 2008, a senior Taliban officer rejected calls for negotiation from Afghanistan's government, calling President Hamid Karzai a US "puppet" amid rumblings that peace talks could be in the offing. Karzai, delivering a message to commemorate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday, had called for Saudi Arabian head of state King Abdullah to help moderate peace talks between insurgents and the government.

As insurgents continue their attacks in Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on October 14, 2008, Washington could "ultimately" accept the idea of Afghanistan's government negotiating with the Taliban.

On October 16, the German Bundestag renewing the mandate for the participation of German troops in the NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

On October 17, 2008, supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr staged a mass demonstration in Baghdad in protest against plans to extend the US mandate in Iraq. An estimated 50,000 protesters chanted slogans such as "Get out occupier!"

On October 19, 2008, we were told that British and Iraqi officials will begin negotiating a deal that will allow British forces to remain in Iraq beyond the end of the year, when a U.N. Security Council mandate on their presence expires. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made the announcement Sunday after meeting with British Defence Secretary John Hutton. The United States is also trying to reach an agreement with Iraq to maintain a military presence beyond 2008.

On a visit to Pakistan on October 21, 2008, Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, announced no extra troops would be sent to Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed on October 29, 2008, to establish joint contacts with Taliban militants as part of efforts to end the escalating violence in both countries. But the Taliban swiftly rejected the call for dialogue, with a spokesman saying it was "worthless". Afghanistan took a first step towards opening talks with the Taliban with a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month between a group of pro-government Afghan officials and former Taliban officials. But the Taliban dismissed those talks too.

The US president George W. Bush visited Afghanistan on December 15, 2008, to inspect troops there. He arrived at Bagram air force base, and is due to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai.

A one-day international conference aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan ended Sunday December 14, 2008, with an agreement to work more closely to help ensure security in the war-torn country. Iran was absent.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have a "new relationship" in tackling militancy, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on January 6, 2009, after talks in Kabul with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari. Mr Zardari, on his first official visit to Afghanistan, said the two countries will work together for a better future.

On January 28, 2009, we were told that Iraq will not renew the licence of US security firm Blackwater, which was involved in a 2007 incident in which at least 14 civilians were killed. The US embassy had been told it will have to use another security company.

Afghanistan will send a team to the US to take part in a major policy review of the region we were told on Sunday February 15, 2009. Mr Karzai said he was "very thankful" to be involved in the talks.

On February 28, 2009, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered presidential elections held by April 21, putting him at odds with the nation's election commission that already has set the date for August. Karzai's decree ordered elections "according to the constitution," which says the vote should be held 30 to 60 days before his term ends on May 21. The election commission believe that "most parts of Afghanistan are inaccessible due to harsh weather" in those months and that "fairness and transparency would be out of the question."

On March 1, 2009, opposition politicians accused the president, Hamid Karzai, of constitutional brinkmanship that threatens to turn Afghanistan into "a new Zimbabwe" after he called for a snap presidential election to be held in April. The country's independent election commission (IEC) warned that millions of voters would be disenfranchised by the insurgency in the country's south and snow-clogged roads in the mountainous north. The Barack Obama administration -already believed to be losing patience with Karzai's government - formally lodged its disapproval, saying the election should take place on 21 August, the date set by the IEC.

President Hamid Karzai said Saturday March 7, 2009, that he accepts the decision by Afghanistan's election commission to hold a presidential vote August 20 and suggested he should retain power during a three-month gap between his term's expiration and the late summer election.

On Thursday March 12, 2009, a Baghdad court sentenced Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former US President George W. Bush, to three years in prison. The sentence sparked outrage among his supporters. His lawyers say they will appeal the verdict. Zaidi had faced up to 15 years in prison on charges of assaulting a foreign leader.

President Hamid Karzai warned the international community Wednesday March 18, 2009, to avoid meddling in governing Afghanistan as the country prepares to go to the polls to elect a new president later this year. He added that his government's foreign partners should respect and honour his country's independence. "Afghanistan ... will never be a puppet state," Karzai said.

Afghanistan's Supreme Court ruled on March 29, 2009, that President Hamid Karzai may stay in office until a new leader is elected later this year. The country's constitution stipulates his term should expire on 21 May. Mr Karzai accepted the decision and would follow the court's instructions. Elections were due next month, but the country's electoral commission says they should be delayed until August due to security concerns. This is an important victory for Hamid Karzai, who had insisted that his mandate should be extended until the election. The Supreme Court ruling said: "The continuation of the president and his deputies is in the interests of the people of Afghanistan."

The Tripartite Commission composed of senior military representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, held a meeting in Pakistan's Rawalpindi on Saturday April 11, 2009. The participants reviewed the security situation in areas along the Pak-Afghan border and discussed the existing level of cooperation.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in Kabul on Monday April 27, 2009, to attend a trilateral meeting with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts. Mottaki, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, are expected to discuss ways to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, and areas for developing trilateral cooperation.

On April 28, 2009, President Hamid Karzai backed down on the so-called "marital rape" law, which had such draconian elements as a ban on married women leaving their homes without their husbands' permission and the requirement that a wife be available for sex at least every four days unless ill or in danger of harm from sexual intercourse. The Shia Family Law was signed into law by the Karzai last month. The law applies to the 15% of Afghans who are Shia Muslims, but another bill was already in progress which would have affected Sunnis.

Officials accused extremist militants of launching a poison gas attack Tuesday May 12, 2009, that caused dozens of schoolgirls to collapse with headaches and nausea as they waited in line for a Quran reading at their school in northeastern Afghanistan. The Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalists have regularly attacked girls' schools in Afghanistan and the second apparent poisoning in two days has raised concerns that they have now found a new weapon to scare girls into staying at home rather than going to class. Students were gathering in the yard of Aftab Bachi School in Muhmud Raqi for a morning reading of the Quran when a strange odour filled the area. First one girl collapsed, then others, said the school's principal, Mossena, who fought for breath as she described the event from her hospital bed.

The campaign for nationwide elections in Afghanistan got off to a subdued start Tuesday June 16, 2009, shadowed by security fears and marked by the chronic disorganization that characterizes most large-scale endeavours here. None of the three main presidential candidates made a public appearance on the first official day of the two-month campaign. Out in Afghanistan's vast hinterlands, many candidates for provincial assemblies stayed home, saying traditional campaign activities such as rallies would be far too dangerous. In Kabul campaign workers were out before dawn, plastering walls and utility poles and the city's few trees with campaign posters. By midday, many of the posters had been torn down, defaced or papered over with a rival's image. The ballot for the August 20 vote is laden with 41 presidential candidates, most of whom are considered to have little chance of victory. The only qualifications for running for president are holding Afghan citizenship and being at least 40 years old.

Afghan women are increasingly the victims of violence, including rapes and acid-throwing attacks at the hands of anti-government elements and local chieftains we were told on July 8, 2009. The situation is further aggravated by impunity for perpetrators and the failure of authorities to protect woman's rights.

The repressive family law that just went into effect in Afghanistan, at least, should make us pause to consider whether there is a good outcome in that nation. The law, a tamer version of one that caused an international outcry earlier this year, allows men to withhold food from a wife who refuses to have sex. For as long as he sees fit. The law also leaves a woman's right to work solely in the hands of her husband. It has the tacit support of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This is the man Afghanis Congress applauded wildly five years ago. He's also the guy Afghanis are almost certain to re-elect later this week as President.

Over 40 Taliban militants, including four local commanders, were killed in western Farah province since Afghan National Army (ANA) and U.S. Marines on Monday September 28, 2009, started an offensive against the outfits. Four Taliban commanders including Shen Shir and Mullah Sultan were killed in the operation. Six ANA soldiers and three U.S. soldiers were injured in the operation.

A United States service member was killed when a suicide car bomber struck a military convoy on Wednesday September 30, 2009, in eastern Afghanistan.

On October 1, 2009, we were told that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has formed a new political bloc to contest January's general election. The alliance will be called State of Law and will comprise of 40 political parties representing a variety of Iraqi religious sects and ethnic groups. Mr Maliki has been prime minister since 2006, but in August his Dawa party broke with the Shia-led coalition. Analysts say the new bloc is unlikely to gain a majority in its own right and might need to join a wider coalition.

The Afghan parliament has rejected 10 of 17 new cabinet nominees suggested by President Hamid Karzai. The vote comes two weeks after MPs turned down most of Mr Karzai's first choices, dealing him a serious blow. Two key posts were approved -Mr Karzai's former security adviser Zalmay Rasul as foreign minister and Habibullah Ghalib as justice minister. MPs backed only one of the three women nominees, Amina Afzali, as work and social affairs minister. The two women put forward for the posts of public health and women's affairs were rejected.

On February 23, 2010, Afghanistan's government has condemned a Nato air strike on a convoy of vehicles in the south of the country, which killed at least 27 civilians. Nato said it had hit a suspected insurgent convoy, but troops then found "a number of individuals killed and wounded", including women and children.

President Hamid Karzai held talks here Monday March 22, 2010, with representatives of one of the key insurgent groups battling his government, as the president continues his high-stakes push for an eventual reconciliation among all of Afghanistan's warring factions. The talks were with a small delegation from the Hezb-i-Islami faction, loyal to former mujaheddin commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated a terrorist and whom many Afghans regard as a "warlord" responsible for large-scale human rights violations. Hezb-i-Islami is the second-largest insurgent group, behind the Taliban, challenging Karzai's government, and since 2001 those two groups have formed an uneasy alliance that seemed to fray with clashes earlier this month in Baghlan province that left 60 people dead.

On March 24, 2010, an army captain, Robert Semrau, has pleaded not guilty to unprecedented Canadian charges of executing a wounded and unarmed enemy on a battlefield in Afghanistan. The charges include
Capt. Robert Semrau, 36, stood ramrod straight and answered "Not guilty, your honour," in a soft voice as four charges, including second-degree murder, attempted murder, disgraceful conduct and negligent performance of duty.

The Obama administration was "troubled" by accusations from the Afghan president that the west was trying to weaken him and that foreign troops risked becoming an occupation force. The White House was concerned over a speech yesterday in which Hamid Karzai sought to turn charges that he stole Afghanistan's presidential election on their head by blaming what he termed "vast fraud" in last August's poll on an attempt by the UN and international organisations to deny him victory or discredit his win. Karzai also said that the 120,000 strong Nato-led foreign forces fighting the Taliban increasingly risked being seen as occupiers, a comment that led his main political opponent to accuse him of treason.

President Hamid Karzai made more antagonistic statements over the weekend toward the NATO countries fighting on behalf of his government. As a result the West was taking stock of just how little manoeuvring room it has. There are no good options on the horizon, many analysts say, for reining in Mr. Karzai or for penalizing him, without potentially damaging Western interests. The reluctant conclusion of diplomats and Afghan analysts is that for now, they are stuck with him. Many people fear the relationship is only likely to become worse, as Mr. Karzai draws closer to allies like Iran and China, whose interests are often at odds with those of the West, and sounds sympathetic enough to the Taliban that he could spur their efforts, helping their recruitment and further destabilizing the country.

Afghan lawmakers said on April 6, 2010, President Hamid Karzai used a closed meeting to lash out at Western critics of his government. He is reported to have said the Taliban will become a "legitimate resistance movement" if outside meddling in Afghan affairs continues. Mr. Karzai also suggested he might join the Taliban if outside pressure does not stop.

President Hamid Karzai on Monday June 7, 2010, defended his decision to remove two of Afghanistan's top security officials, conceding they would be missed but insisting they must be held accountable for a recent lapse -an attack on a major peace conference.

U.S. military officials and geologists have found mineral deposits in Afghanistan worth nearly $1 trillion we were told on Monday June 14, 2010. Vast supplies of minerals such as iron, copper and gold are scattered over the country. They won't be easy to extricate and that it will take years to turn this newfound mineral wealth into actual revenue.

World leaders from over 70 countries met in Kabul on July 20, 2010, for an Afghanistan, with the goal of helping the war-torn country restore itself economically, socially and politically. Among the attendees were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Secretary Clinton spoke of US support for the country and expressed a need for "an Afghanistan that is stable, peaceful and secure is in everyone's interest, particularly women and children," but that this goal said "cannot come at the cost of women".

American, European and other foreign leaders met here Tuesday July 20, 2010, to pledge anew their support for Afghanistan, agree to entrust it with more spending decisions, and embrace its president's commitment for Afghan forces to take charge of security by 2014. They acknowledged that neither the public in their own countries nor the Afghan people had much patience left.

The bodies of 10 people, including eight foreigners, were recovered Friday August 6, 2010, in a remote area of Badakhshan province in northern Afghanistan. The victims, who had been shot, were found next to three bullet-riddled four-wheeled drive vehicles in Kuran Wa Munjan district. Two Afghan men were found dead along with eight others -three women and five men- whose nationalities were not known. It was unclear what the group was doing in the forested area away from main routes through the province. Kemtuz speculated that robbery could have been a motive in the killings.

An operation by international and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan claimed at least four civilian casualties, while roadside bombs killed 12 civilians. The civilian death toll from Wednesday August 4, 2010's operation in Nangahar province appeared to be 'between four and a dozen or more. The news came days after ISAF commander General David Petraeus issued a tactical directive to increase efforts to avoid collateral deaths among Afghanistan's population. The troops were approaching a village in Sherzad District 'based on accurate intelligence that senior Taliban leadership was present' when they were fired on with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from several directions. In the ensuing clash, between 15 and 20 insurgents were killed, including two Taliban leaders. The troops continued to come under fire as they were retreating, which is why they called in air support.

A man and woman who were accused of carrying on an adulterous affair have been stoned to death. The barbaric act is the latest in a string of archaic sentences handed down by the Taliban which practices a strict adherence to Islamic law. This happened in the Mullah Quli village, Kunduz Province on Monday August 16, 2010. The couple, both in their 20s, had their hands tied behind their backs and stood in a field as several people among 100 local villagers threw rocks at them until they died.

Two people were killed and about half a dozen others injured in continuing protests Sunday September 12, 2010, against an American pastor's plan -suspended two days earlier- to burn copies of the Muslim holy book. Violence stemming from the now-defunct threat by a heretofore little-known pastor, Terry Jones, illustrated the depth of outrage inspired in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world over his church's declared intent to desecrate the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The run on deposits at the troubled Kabul Bank slowed Tuesday September 14, 2010, after a long religious holiday, but Afghan financial officials and businessmen said they foresaw further problems in stabilizing the bank, the nation's largest. They raised the possibility of prosecutions of bank officials who were in charge until two weeks ago, when they were ousted because of fears that the bank's losses far exceeded its deposits. Afghanistan's central bank has taken several steps to help Kabul Bank, including the appointment of a new chief executive and other employees that have effectively put the central bank in charge of managing Kabul Bank's operations.

Afghanistan has formally banned eight foreign private security firms, including the controversial company formerly called Blackwater we were told on Sunday October 3, 2010. There are fears the measure could create huge problems for the military and other international entities that depend on the estimated 40,000 employees of private security contractors.

On Thursday October 7, 2010, Afghan President Hamid Karzai used the anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan to open the inaugural session of a peace council appointed to help reconcile with the Taliban and other militant groups. President Karzai offered peace to the Taliban nine years to the day after U.S.-led forces began their effort to topple the group's government in Kabul. Mr. Karzai opened the 70-member council meeting. The Afghan leader said he hoped the High Council for Peace will make the desire of peace and stability a reality for the nation. He said Afghanistan's reconstruction and development are linked to peace and stability. The council includes former Taliban officials as well as past Afghan presidents, civilian and religious leaders. President Karzai made a special appeal to members of the Taliban in their main language, Pashto.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai talks to Afghans in the Argandab district of Kandahar province Saturday October 9, 2010. Karzai confirmed that the Afghanistan government is in talks with the Taliban in search of a settlement.

In Khogeyani the entire police force on duty Monday November 1, 2010, appears to have defected to the Taliban side. A spokesman for the Taliban said they made contact with the Khogeyani's police force, cut a deal, and then sacked and burned the station. As many as 19 officers vanished, as did their guns, trucks, uniforms and food. The local police chief, who missed the attack, said he suspected a defection en masse.

A vehicle bomb exploded near a military base on the edge of Kabul Friday November 12, 2010, injuring at least one person. In a separate incident, a service member was killed in eastern Afghanistan as the result of an insurgent strike.

At least 17 people were killed in a series of attacks across Afghanistan Saturday November 13, 2010, including three coalition service members. In the north, a motorcycle bomb killed eight people and wounded several others in a market in Kunduz province. In eastern Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents attacked an observation post at the Jalalabad city airport. NATO troops repelled the attack, killing six militants. Three NATO soldiers died in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan. Four civilians sustained injuries as a motorbike bomb went off in Taliban birthplace Kandahar in south Afghanistan.

A British soldier was killed by an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Sunday November 14, 2010, raising the country's military death toll there since 2001 to 344. The soldier from 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment died from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device in the southern Nad-e Ali area of Helmand Province.

At least 40 Taliban have surrendered and joined pro-government forces in the north of Afghanistan after a military operation the police said on January 18, 2011. The insurgents had given up in the district of Imam Saheb, near the border with Tajikistan. But a Taliban spokesman denied any militants had switched.

Seven private security companies operating in Afghanistan are being dissolved we were told on Tuesday March 15, 2011, while dozens more face closure. Private security companies help guard everything from Western embassies and international military convoys to non-governmental organisations and media companies in war-torn Afghanistan. In addition to the seven, a further 45 companies can continue their operations for another year but will then have their functions replaced by an Afghan government public protection force. Embassies would still be able to employ private security firms after the 12 months were up. But after that period, the public protection force would be responsible for guarding military convoys.

At least five people have been killed in Kandahar on Saturday April 2, 2011, the second day of violent protests over the burning of a Quran by an obscure U.S. pastor. Four dead bodies brought to a hospital in Kandahar city showed signs they had been beaten and hit with stones. A band of around 150 men who had taken to the streets to denounce Quran burning set tyres alight, smashed up shops and attacked a photographer. A reporter was hit over the head and had his camera taken from him and smashed, by protesters who discussed killing him. Police kept other journalists from approaching the crowd, which was shouting slogans including "death to America".
A Romanian citizen is among the UN staff members killed on Friday April 1, 2011, in an attack of demonstrators against the UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif. The riot was spurred by a recent burning of a Koran at a Florida church. Among the victims were at least seven UN workers. Romanian President Traian Basescu expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Two people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday April 3, 2011, as demonstrations erupted for a third day in Afghanistan over the burning of a Koran in the US. President Hamid Karzai repeated his call to the White House, Senate and United Nations to bring to justice Terry Jones, the pastor who masterminded the burning of Islam's holy book. One person was killed and 20 injured in an accidental explosion that ripped through crowds of protesters in Kandahar. Violent protests that began in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday have claimed the lives of at least 22 people including seven foreign UN staff.

Over 100 people have died in violence in Kandahar, sparked by protests against a US pastor's burning of the holy Quran we were told on Sunday April 3, 2011. Fighting was going on outside a government building and the city's fifth district was littered with bodies. The protesters have been joined by Taliban militants. Police had opened fire on a crowd that tried to storm a UN office located next to a government building killing nine attackers. Violence started in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where seven UN workers and four protesters died as a mob stormed a UN office. It moved to the southern city of Kandahar Saturday, continuing Sunday. Violence has now spread to Jalalabad in the east, where at least 20 people have been killed. US President Barack Obama termed the killings "outrageous". "The desecration of any holy text, including the Quran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
The Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have strongly condemned April 1, 2011, attack in which a large crowd of demonstrators angry at the burning of a copy of the Koran by a United States group stormed a United Nations compound and killed a number of people, including three UN staff members. The attack took place at an operations centre for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Three international staff working with the mission were killed, as well as four Nepalese Gurkha soldiers serving as guards at the operations centre. An unconfirmed number of Afghan demonstrators were killed. Many staff were also wounded, including the head of UNAMA's office in Mazar-i-Sharif. The demonstration was one of several held across Afghanistan today in protest at last month's burning of a Koran by a Christian group based in the state of Florida. Many of the demonstrators in Mazar-i-Sharif were armed and, while the security guards tried their best, the crowd was so large that they were soon outnumbered.

Protesters took to the streets in Mehterlam, the provincial capital of eastern Laghman province Monday April 4, 2011, to rally against the March 20 burning of a Quran by the head of a small fundamentalist church in the southern U.S. state of Florida. Hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators scuffled with police. No casualties were reported.

About 1,000 protesters gathered in front of Kabul University on Tuesday April 5, 2011, as protests continue throughout Afghanistan to condemn the burning of a Quran by a pastor in the United States. The demonstrators marched toward the city centre amid a heavy police presence but without incident.

When Pastor Terry Jones, 59, announced intent to burn a Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2010, the U.S. government, fearing attacks on American troops abroad, put intense pressure on him to desist and eventually he called off his plans. Jones, however, did not cancel the ceremonial judgment of the Islamic scripture -he only delayed it by six months. On March 20, 2011, in a six-hour ceremony called "International Judge the Koran Day," Jones convened a mock-judicial process in Florida that deemed the book "guilty of crimes against humanity," then set a copy on fire. The event was intentionally ignored in the United States, in the hopes of limiting its impact, but little stays secret in the Internet age. Within two days, news of the conflagration had reached Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the country's presidents roundly denounced Jones, bringing his action to wide notice. On April 1, infuriated Afghans lashed out, killing twelve in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif; the next day, suicide bombers dressed in women's clothing attacked a coalition base in Kabul and street mobs in Kandahar again killed twelve. Who is morally to blame for these deaths, Jones or the Islamists who seek to apply the laws of Islam in their entirety and as severely as possible? What about that idiot of Jones?

A demonstration in Kabul on Thursday April 7, 2011, over the burning of a Quran by a U.S. pastor was peaceful, even if the rhetoric from protesters was not. The protesters were calling 'Death to America,' 'Death to Obama. They blame Terry Jones for his action but) we also believe that American government is behind this burning of the Quran.

Several hundred Shaikh Zahid university students in Khost staged fresh, peaceful protests on Saturday April 9, 2011, in eastern Afghanistan against the burning of a copy of the Koran in the US. They shouted slogans against the pastor who carried out the burning last month and carried anti-US and pro-Islam placards. One slogan said: "We ask the United States government to bring to justice that infidel who burned and desecrated our holy book." The demonstration lasted for about two hours but was peaceful.

Afghan insurgents proudly claimed they helped dig the long, narrow tunnel used by at least 475 inmates to escape Sarposa prison in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday April 24, 2011. Some said they helped haul away the dirt during the last five months using pickup trucks, trailers and even donkey carts. The tunnel, measuring more than 1,050 feet long, reportedly began inside a Taliban sympathizer's mud-walled compound, surrounded by shops, and reached into the prison grounds. It was unclear Monday whether those who helped dig the tunnel lived in the sympathizer's compound while they worked. But they said they plotted together as the tunnel grew, skirting police checkpoints, under the busy Kandahar-Herat highway and into a central cell block of the prison's political wing. The tunnel had grown to about 3 feet wide by Sunday, when the diggers reached their goal.

On Saturday May 28, 2011, President Karzai instructed his defence minister to stop all night raids by NATO troops in Afghanistan and have only Afghan troops conduct such operations. The president's decision, announced in a statement from his office, did not elaborate on how he intended to accomplish that goal. The move follows years of criticism from Karzai about intrusive NATO military operations into Afghan homes, particularly those that harm civilians. But it appeared to be the most concrete step he has sought to reduce their frequency. But the coalition did not signal any intention of making radical changes soon.

Two former executives from Afghanistan's biggest bank have been arrested over massive fraud that led to the bank's collapse, prosecutors said on Thursday June 30, 2011, with the fallout from the scandal putting at risk tens of millions of dollars in aid. Former Kabulbank chairman Sher Khan Farnood and former chief executive officer Khalilullah Fruzi were arrested on embezzlement charges.

On Saturday July 23, 2011, we were told by a bipartisan congressional commission that the United States has wasted some $34 billion on service contracts with the private sector in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study being finalized for Congress. The analysis by the Commission on Wartime Contracting, details offers the most complete look so far at the misuse of U.S. contracting funds in Afghanistan and Iraq, where more than $200 billion has been doled out in the contracts and grants over nearly a decade. It also gives the most complete picture of the magnitude of the.

As of Tuesday, August 2, 2011, at least 1,575 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. At least 1,308 military service members have died as a result of hostile action. Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 100 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action. The Defence Department also counts two military civilian deaths. Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 13,011 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.

U.S. contracting workforce in the two countries. More than 200,000 contractors have been on the U.S. payroll at times in Iraq and Afghanistan -outstripping the number of U.S. troops currently on the ground in those countries

I On Sunday September 25, 2011, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appointed a team to investigate the assassination of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who headed the nation's peace council and was leading efforts to find a political solution to the 10-year war with the Taliban. He was killed last week in a suicide attack at his home in Kabul.

On Saturday October 1, 2011, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his top aides said they are abandoning efforts at peace talks with the Taliban after concluding that the Pakistan-based insurgent leaders aren't serious about negotiations. The move comes less than two weeks after a purported Taliban envoy killed Afghanistan's top peace negotiator, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, in his Kabul home. Mr. Karzai and his aides have decided to focus their efforts on putting pressure on Pakistan, which has provided aid and sanctuary to Afghan insurgents who have kept the United States and its allies embroiled in a decade of war. The decision effectively sidelines the work of the High Peace Council, a year-old body created by Mr. Karzai to explore the prospects for opening direct peace talks with the Taliban and its insurgent allies. Mr. Rabbani was the council's chairman.

Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday October 22, 2011. The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbours over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20. Such a situation is extremely unlikely, however. Despite months of tension and tough talk between Washington and Islamabad, the two allies appear to be working to ease tension. In a two-day visit to Islamabad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued stern warnings and asked for more cooperation in winding down the war in Afghanistan, but ruled out "boots on the ground" in North Waziristan, where Washington has been pushing Pakistan to tackle the Haqqani network.

The bodyguards for Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi shot and killed a would-be suicide bomber who was waiting for the minister's convoy Sunday October 23, 2011, in Sayyed Khel district of Parwan province, north of the capital. The bodyguards checking security ahead of the minister became suspicious of the assailant. When the man continued walking toward them, they shot him dead. The minister was not yet on the scene. The attacker was wearing a suicide bomb vest, and he was killed before he could detonate his explosives. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Days after he stood with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and accused Pakistan of harbouring his country's enemies, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said this weekend that his country would support Pakistan if it ever went to war with the United States. He appeared to be trying to reassure Pakistan of Afghanistan's friendship after months of increasing tensions between the neighbouring countries, while also urging Islamabad to sever its ties to militant extremists who are using the country as a haven to attack Afghanistan. But the comments, which were broadcast Saturday October 22, 2011, on Pakistani television, again displayed Mr. Karzai's ability to mystify his Western backers who have shored up his administration with billions of dollars in aid and military support during his nearly 10 years as Afghanistan's leader.

A tribal gathering to debate a long-term military and economic pact between Afghanistan and the US after most foreign troops quit the country has been widely dismissed as a mere rubber stamp for decisions already made by Hamid Karzai. But the four-day meeting of politicians and elders -due to start on Wednesday November 16, 2011, in a second-hand beer tent- has already generated death threats and boycotts by the Afghan president's political enemies and raised the spectre of Taliban attacks. Kabul police said they shot dead a suicide bomber who tried to enter the tent where this week's loya jirga will be held. The man, who was apparently trying to get into the Kabul Polytechnic buildings in the same enclosure as the jirga tent, was shot before he could do any damage. Two other people were later arrested.

More than 2 million people are facing food shortages in northern Afghanistan after a drought and the situation could get even worse if winter snows cut off access to remote regions, we were told on Friday November 18, 2011. A severe drought had affected areas scattered across 14 northern provinces, while a U.N. appeal for the crisis remained only 7 percent funded. The U.N. appealed for $142 million in early October. At the time, the international body said that drought conditions had emerged in the north, northeast and west of Afghanistan because of little snowfall last winter. The U.N. said a lack of water led to crop shortfalls of up to 80 percent in rain-fed wheat crops.

The outcome of Monday December 5, 2011, Bonn conference on Afghanistan was anything but clear. Dozens of nations, including the United States, and organizations met to come up with a road map of support beyond the withdrawal of U.S. and other international forces from Afghanistan in 2014. They pledged to stand by Afghanistan in the 10 years after the withdrawal of foreign troops in exchange for good governance. However, none offered any specifics. For it's part, Afghanistan said it would require $10 billion annually over the next decade to shore up security and reconstruction. Pakistan, a key player in the region, threw a curve ball at the conference by refusing to attend following a NATO strike that killed two dozen of its troops in a friendly fire incident along the border with Afghanistan in late November.

More than 250 insurgents in northwestern Afghanistan have embraced the Peace Program of the Afghan government. It has been the largest rehabilitation and disarming of militants in Afghanistan so far. On Wednesday December 14, 2011, Fifteen groups of insurgents from different parts of Badghis province, led by their Commanders, surrendered their weapons and signed documents pledging to abandon the armed fight against the Afghan Government and ISAF forces

Some American-trained, Afghan local police officers have engaged in illegal taxation, carried weapons outside their villages and in some cases committed assault, but over all the American military leadership thinks they have been "effective," according to a report issued Thursday December 15, 2012.

On December 27, 2011, we were told that President Hamid Karzai plans to disband a little-known, irregular police force financed by the American military with members in at least four northern provinces. Some members of the force are former militiamen and thugs known as much for extorting money from ordinary citizens as for intimidating insurgents and upholding the law. The decision appeared aimed at stopping at least some of the militias that are beyond the control of Mr. Karzai's administration and could one day challenge the government. It also appeared to be an effort to constrain the independence of northern Afghanistan, where strongmen and power brokers, especially the governor of Balkh Province, have often seemed to operate with only nominal deference to the central government in Kabul. Additionally, it was a slap at NATO, which has had a hand in establishing this particular force, known as the Critical Infrastructure Police.

Six months ago, in a moving ceremony during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Hamid Karzai pardoned about two dozen young boys, the youngest only 8 years old, who had been caught trying to carry out suicide attacks. On Monday February 13, 2012, authorities in Kandahar province reported that two of the children, 10-year-olds, had been rearrested last week, apparently intending again to carry out bombings. The boys each had a vest full of explosives when they were detained along with three adults suspected of being militants, and that they told intelligence officers they had been recruited for suicide missions. One of the boys, named Azizullah, said that the pair had undergone training at a madrasa, or religious school, in Pakistan. The mullahs there told the boys they would be unharmed when they set off their bombs. The other child, named Nasibullah, told authorities he had been taught how to detonate an explosives-laden vest. The agency said one of the boys was from Pakistan's Baluchistan province, across the border from southern Afghanistan, and that the other was from Afghanistan's Paktia province, which borders Pakistan's tribal areas.

As thousands of angry Afghans flung rocks at NATO's largest military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday February 21, 2012, American officials sought to quell a widening furore over what they said was the accidental incineration by U.S. military personnel of copies of the Islamic holy book. The protests erupted after Afghans working at Bagram air base told local residents that a number of copies of the Koran had been burned. When they carried out the charred pages, waving them in the air, the crowd grew larger and more defiant. The U.S. apologized for the burning of Muslim holy books that had been pulled from the shelves of a detention centre library adjoining a major base in eastern Afghanistan because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. The White House echoed military officials in saying that the burning of Qurans and other Islamic reading material that had been tossed in a pile of garbage was an accident.

NATO has urged Afghanistan to accelerate the signing of a strategic partnership deal with the US in the wake of deadly protests over the burning of the Koran, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday February 29, 2012. The president said he was willing to sign the long-term agreement but reiterated that it would only be done under certain conditions. These include a respect for Afghan national sovereignty, an end to night raids by international forces and the handing over of the Bagram prison -known as Afghanistan's Guantanamo Bay- to Afghan control.

On Friday March 2, 2012, a council of Afghanistan's top religious leaders are calling on the U.S. to end night raids and hand over its prisons to Afghan control. The influential Afghan Ullema Council says that if Afghans had been in charge, Qurans from a detention centre at an American base would never have been tossed on a burn pit. Control over detainees and night raids are the two most contentious issues in a strategic partnership document that Washington and Kabul are negotiating. The council statement is a boost for the Afghan government's position. The document would govern U.S. operations in Afghanistan after 2014 when NATO ends its combat mission.

Seeking to break an impasse on a broader strategic arrangement, the United States agreed Friday March 9, 2012, to greatly accelerate its transfer of imprisoned insurgents to Afghan government control, but will retain a veto over which ones can be released.

On Thursday March 15, 2012, the Taliban have suspended preliminary peace negotiations with the United States. The group blamed the Americans' "ever-changing position" and said US efforts to involve the Afghan authorities were a key stumbling block to further talks. The Taliban regard the Kabul government as illegitimate. Meanwhile President Hamid Karzai urged Nato troops to leave Afghan villages after a US soldier killed 16 civilians. US officials denied any major rift.

Female visitors to Afghanistan's main prison were still being subjected to body cavity searches Saturday March 17, 2012, despite a suspension of U.S. funding and orders from Afghan officials to stop the practice. It's a situation that both shows the fading influence of the U.S. government in Afghanistan and provides an example of the type of issues of conduct and policy that may arise as the U.S. transfers its own detention facility to the Afghan government. The commander of Pol-i-Charki prison outside the capital has had female guards performing the intrusive searches on all women visiting inmates for at least the past month. Men are not submitted to similar searches.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday March 22, 2012, his government was pressing to end divisive NATO night raids in negotiations with the United States on a long-term strategic pact, saying some past operations had violated Afghan sovereignty. The increasingly assertive Afghan leader's admonition came as U.S. and Afghan officials try to agree on a framework for some American troops and advisers to stay in the country beyond a 2014 deadline for most NATO combat forces to withdraw. Both countries recently agreed to transfer a U.S.-run prison to Afghan authority. The final sticking point is Western military raids on Afghan homes at night, which both infuriate Afghans and damage Karzai's popularity.

Stalled peace efforts in Afghanistan suffered another setback on Thursday March 29, 2012, when a second insurgent faction announced it was suspending formal peace negotiations with the Afghan government, as the Taliban did earlier this month. The group, Hezb-i-Islami, or Islamic Party, has been an increasingly minor presence on the battlefield in recent years, pressured by coalition forces and chased from strongholds in central and eastern Afghanistan by its Taliban rivals.

Afghanistan wants the United States to clearly spell out what sort of military presence it will leave behind once most of its combat troops leave by the end of 2014 we were told on Saturday March 31, 2012. It is also pressing Washington in talks over future cooperation to detail to be more forthcoming on what will be on offer for Afghan forces as they ready to take over responsibility security in the country that is still at war. In negotiations for a Strategic Partnership Deal on long-term cooperation, one of the stumbling blocks is the U.S. plan for a limited military presence to ensure members of al Qaeda and other militant groups do not find a sanctuary again

On Sunday April 1, 2012, Afghanistan named a three star general to take over Bagram prison from the U.S. military and with him, final say over which prisoners are released, an issue with the potential to open another rift in relations between Washington and Kabul. The issue of the release of any of the 3,200 people held in the prison at the sprawling American base, north of Kabul, is sensitive to both countries as Afghanistan assumes full security responsibilities ahead of departure of most NATO combat forces in 2014. Washington fears the prisoners, most of whom it says are mid to high level members of the Taliban, might return to the battlefield as has happened in the past, citing the case of a Taliban commander transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Afghan custody in 2007 who ended up fighting coalition forces again.

The United States and Afghanistan are close to an agreement over how to handle the hotly contested issue of night raids but still are at odds over how long coalition forces can detain prisoners, such as those captured during the operations, we were told on Tuesday April 3, 2012.The agreement would call for the Afghans to take the lead in night operations and set up a timely, warrant-like judicial process for the raids. Afghan officials want detainees to be turned over to Afghanistan authorities immediately after capture. But, the U.S. wants authority to hold them longer, largely because they often can provide key intelligence information about insurgent activities. According to standard operating procedures for NATO troops in Afghanistan, detainees can be held for up to 96 hours. After that the individual must be released or turned over to the Afghans unless a top U.S. or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander approves a longer detention if it is deemed necessary. Once the new agreement on night raids is signed, the U.S. would have in hand the two key accords they wanted to reach with the Afghans prior to the NATO conference in Chicago. More than 50 heads of state will meet on May 20-21 to discuss progress on ending the war and future strategy, and the documents are expected to form the centrepiece of the summit. The two documents form the basis of what will eventually evolve into a long-term strategic partnership accord between the U.S. and Afghanistan. The two governments have been working for about a year to nail down the terms of a document that would govern U.S. operations in Afghanistan after 2014, when the Afghan government is expected to take charge of security countrywide. Afghan leaders have complained repeatedly about the night raids, which they say cause too many civilian deaths. And they say Afghans must have greater control over the operations. U.S. military leaders argue that the vast majority of the raids are already led by the Afghan security forces. And they say civilian casualties have been very limited. The United Nations has reported that 2011 was the deadliest on record for overall civilian casualties in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed as insurgents ratcheted up violence with suicide attacks and roadside bombs. The U.N. attributed 77 percent of the deaths to insurgent attacks and 14 percent to actions by international and Afghan troops, although those deaths were not limited to night operations. Nine percent of cases were classified as having an unknown cause.

The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on night military operations on Sunday April 8, 2012, resolving a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and Washington. The agreement removes a key obstacle to a long-term strategic partnership between the two countries, including a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, when all foreign combat troops are set to leave the country. Karzai has repeatedly called for an end to the raids, calling them a clear violation of Afghan sovereignty. But U.S. military officials have long hailed the effectiveness of night operations, during which many suspected insurgents -and their commanders- have been arrested. Under the deal, a newly formed national force -the Afghan Special Operations Unit- will have the authority to search houses and private compounds and arrest suspected insurgents. U.S. forces will provide support "only as required or requested".

The eldest son of the slain former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani was chosen Saturday April 14, 2012, to replace his father as head of the council charged with overseeing reconciliation with the Taliban-led insurgency. The move was aimed at reviving peace efforts that have been badly damaged, first by Rabbani's assassination by a suicide bomber in September, and then by an announcement in March by the Taliban that they were suspending contacts with U.S. officials on opening negotiations on a political settlement. The 70-member High Peace Council unanimously selected Salahuddin Rabbani as its new chairman.

Afghanistan's president raised another condition Tuesday April 17, 2012, for a long-awaited strategic partnership with the United States: The accord must spell out the yearly U.S. commitment to pay billions of dollars for the cash-strapped Afghan security forces. The demand threatens to further delay the key bilateral pact and suggests that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is worried that the U.S. commitment to his country is wavering as the drawdown of foreign forces nears. The U.S. already pays the vast majority of the budget to train, equip and run the Afghan security forces and expects to do so for years to come to compensate for Afghanistan's moribund economy. But the yearly Congressional budget process, as well as the American public's weariness with the Afghan conflict, would make it difficult for Washington to commit to a dollar figure years in advance.

After months of negotiations, the United States and Afghanistan completed drafts of a strategic partnership agreement on Sunday April 22, 2012, that pledges American support for Afghanistan for 10 years after the withdrawal of combat troops at the end of 2014. The agreement, whose text was not released, represents an important moment when the United States begins the transition from being the predominant foreign force in Afghanistan to serving a more traditional role of supportive ally. The deal builds on hard-won new understandings the two countries reached in recent weeks on the thorny issues of detainees and Special Operations raids. It covers social and economic development, institution building, regional cooperation and security. Lacking certainty about a long-term American commitment to Afghanistan, some countries were holding back, waiting to see what the United States, the leader in shaping Afghan policy, would do. Western diplomats said that the allies would now be more willing to make commitments.

Afghanistan's parliament has approved a strategic partnership agreement with the United States. The approval came in a vote Saturday May 26, 2012, and by a simple majority of those present in the 249-seat body. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed the agreement in Kabul on May 1. It governs the relationship between the two countries through 2024.

As many as 100 people are feared dead in an earthquake and landslide that buried more than 20 houses in northern Afghanistan on Monday June 11, 2012. A massive landslide of mud and rocks buried houses so deep in the remote mountain village of Sayi Hazara that rescuers gave up trying to use shovels to dig through the buried buildings. An earthquake measuring a magnitude 5.4 struck the Hindu Kush region, followed by a 5.7 quake. Baghlan province's Burka district, the site of the landslide, is a remote collection of mountain villages. It takes more than two hours to drive the approximately 40 kilometres from the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri to the area. The police led a team of rescue workers and medics from Pul-e-Khumri, but discovered on arrival that they could be of little use. The handful of people who survived the landslide had already been driven to clinics.

On Saturday June 23, 2012, flash floods have swept northern Afghanistan, killing at least 37 people. More than 100 homes, hundreds of hectares of farmland and farm animals were been destroyed by the floods that followed four or five days of heavy rain in the region.

Donors at a major development conference for Afghanistan will pledge total aid of more than $16 billion for four years to 2015, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said Saturday July 7, 2012. Japan, which will co-chair the one-day conference on Sunday with Afghanistan, will provide up to $3 billion for the five years to 2016, in addition to $1 billion for the war-torn nation's neighbouring states. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is attending the conference along with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, has called for $4 billion a year in civilian aid. Afghanistan fears donations could dry up when NATO pulls out in 2014, with the focus of the Tokyo meeting set on whether the international community will stay committed to supporting the country in the years after foreign combat forces leave.

An international donor's conference on Sunday July 8, 2012, pledged $16 billion for the economic development of Afghanistan in the next four years, but for the first time made it a condition that the Afghan government reduce corruption before receiving all of the money. The agreement, called the Tokyo Framework of Mutual Accountability, says that foreign governments will assure Afghanistan a steady stream of financing in exchange for stronger anticorruption measures and the establishment of the rule of law. Up to 20 percent of the money would depend on the government meeting governance standards, according to the document, which was released here on Sunday. The money pledge, along with the plans for the Afghan security forces laid out at a NATO summit meeting in May in Chicago, represent a diplomatic success for American officials, who have lobbied for long-term international support for Afghanistan. There had been concerns that the economic crunch in the West and donor fatigue would leave President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and his American backers scrambling to come up with the money needed to run and secure Afghanistan, where the government's expenses far outstrip its revenues.

Italy and Spain are scaling back the money allotted for development projects in Afghanistan this year as their debt crises widen at home we were told on Saturday July 28, 2012. Italy, which spends almost half its Afghan aid money on education, has wiped 400,000 Euros off this year's pledge, leaving 5 million Euros, and Spain is decreasing its amount by millions. Compared to the 10 million Euros spent last year, Spain has 7.3 million Euros this year to go for road construction and other projects. Six reconstruction teams -three U.S., two Swedish and one German- were shut across the country over the last month. Of the 26 existing today, seven will shut by the middle of next year meaning their education, health and construction projects will come to an end. Italy has committed about 36 million Euros for development work in Afghanistan since 2005, while Spain has contributed 226 million Euros since 2006.

The Afghan parliament voted Saturday August 4, 2012, to dismiss the country's defence and interior ministers, a move that threatens to throw the country's security apparatus into confusion as foreign forces withdraw.

Afghanistan's president responded Sunday August 5, 2012, to parliament's dismissal of his defence and interior ministers by retaining them as caretakers, keeping his security team intact for now but infuriating lawmakers who suspect he may delay replacing them indefinitely.

Afghanistan's defence minister stepped down on Tuesday August 7, 2012, following a weekend no-confidence vote in parliament. The exit of Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak leaves a vacancy at the helm of the ministry that has overseen rapid expansion of the nation's army. Afghan soldiers are increasingly taking their positions on the front lines of the war as foreign combat troops withdraw. Wardak's resignation comes at the peak of the summer fighting season. Violence on Tuesday hit eastern and southern Afghanistan, where militants have their deepest roots.

Afghanistan's defence minister stepped down on Tuesday August 7, 2012, following a weekend no-confidence vote in parliament. The exit of Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak leaves a vacancy at the helm of the ministry that has overseen rapid expansion of the nation's army. Afghan soldiers are increasingly taking their positions on the front lines of the war as foreign combat troops withdraw. Wardak's resignation comes at the peak of the summer fighting season. Violence on Tuesday hit eastern and southern Afghanistan, where militants have their deepest roots.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai moved to replace the country's intelligence chief and the ministers of defence and interior Wednesday August 29, 2012, the first step in what senior government officials said was a planned wider Cabinet shake-up aimed at solidifying the president's power before elections and the drawdown of foreign forces. The president also is trying to shore up his shaken security team as his administration struggles to build an army and police force in the face of a resurgent Taliban as the U.S. and other foreign forces begin to withdraw. Karzai's latest reshuffle of top officials –if it goes through– appeared to be an attempt to stack the Cabinet and electoral commission with his allies in a bid to retain power behind the scenes after his final five-year term ends and the international troops withdraw in 2014.

Afghanistan has fired hundreds of troops as part of its investigation of insider attacks, we were told on Wednesday September 5, 2012. The moves follow a growing number of attacks on NATO troops by people dressed as Afghan police or soldiers. This year, 35 such attacks have killed 45 people.

The United States has formally handed over control of Bagram prison to the Afghan government, despite concerns about the fate of some of its inmates. A small ceremony at Bagram prison outside Kabul Monday September 10, 2012, marked the handover of more than 3,000 prisoners from U.S. to Afghan authorities. About 600 remain in U.S. custody. According to the country's law, foreigners don't have the right to keep any Afghan prisoner in the future. President Hamid Karzai hailed the transfer of the prison and the inmates as a victory for his country's sovereignty.

Afghans will elect a new president in the spring of 2014 in a ballot considered crucial for their country’s stability and security after more than 11 years of war. Afghan politicians and the country’s foreign backers hailed Wednesday October 31, 2012’s announcement as a step toward a peaceful transition of power. The Taliban, who could make or break the poll, denounced it as meaningless and vowed to keep on fighting.

Eight people were executed by hanging in Afghanistan on Tuesday November 20, 2012, ending a virtual four-year moratorium on the death penalty. Eight more men are to be hanged on Wednesday. The 16 death sentences were formally approved by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The first eight men were hanged in Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul after being convicted on charges of murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and sexual assault. They were guilty of “crimes and cruelty against children, women and the people of Afghanistan."

On Sunday December 2, 2012, we were told that last week, two brothers slit the throat of Gastina, a seventh-grade girl, for refusing a marriage proposal. It wasn’t an isolated incident. Fourteen-year-old Gastina probably didn’t realize the imminent danger she was facing. As the seventh-grade student was fetching drinking water at 9 a.m. from a well some 500 feet from her modest house in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz early this past Tuesday, she was set upon by two men brandishing a hunting knife. The men, who are related to Gastina, jumped on her and brutally slit her throat to the bone. The local police and the provincial director of women’s affairs in the province called her cruel death a beheading.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai sharply criticized the United States on Thursday December 6, 2012, blaming American and NATO forces for some of the growing insecurity in his country. The Taliban are regaining land and power lost after they were toppled by U.S.-backed forces in 2001. Meanwhile, Karzai has gone from being a favourite of Washington under the presidency of George W. Bush, to a thorn in the White House's side with his criticism of American night raids and mounting civilian casualties at the hands of NATO troops. Many in Washington have also grown weary of Karzai, viewing him as ineffective and presiding over a deeply corrupt government. After 10 years of Karzai's rule, has life improved in Afghanistan? His criticism of the United States, Afghanistan's most important ally, has come after the start of complex bilateral talks on a security pact on the role the United States would play after most of its troops are withdrawn by the end of 2014. Karzai said the inmates in American detention in Afghanistan were being held in breach of an agreement he and Obama signed in March and must be handed over immediately.

Afghan women are frequent victims of abuse, despite some success by authorities in prosecuting rape cases, forced marriages and domestic violence under a 3-year-old law, according to a report issued Tuesday December 11, 2012, by the United Nations. Afghanistan enacted its Elimination of Violence Against Women law in August 2009. It criminalizes child marriage, selling and buying women to settle disputes, assault and more than a dozen other acts of violence and abuse against women. The U.N. collected information from 22 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces during a 12-month period ending in September to find out how well the law was being implemented.

Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, will be flown to Germany for medical treatment for a stroke suffered this week, we were told on Wednesday December 19, 2012. The president, 79, was said to be in “stable” condition, and the decision was announced after medical specialists from abroad were dispatched to the hospital to assess the possibility of sending him out of the country for further treatment.

 

The Afghan president on Thursday December 20, 2012, welcomed the withdrawal of nearly half of the British troops from Afghanistan next year, saying his forces were ready to take on defence of the country. British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday that about 3,800 British troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2013, leaving some 5,000 into 2014. The majority of NATO forces, including those of the United States, will depart by the end of 2014.

On Friday December 21, 2012 a search is under way for a soldier from the NATO-led coalition who has gone missing in southern Afghanistan. The Georgian soldier is believed to be the first to have gone missing since U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was taken prisoner by the Taliban more than three years ago. Eighteen soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which has 1,560 troops in Afghanistan, have been killed over the past three years. There are currently more than 102,000 coalition troops in the country, including 66,000 from the United States. Only a residual force is slated to remain past 2013.

An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul on Monday December 24, 2012. The woman, identified as Afghan police Sgt. Nargas, had entered a strategic compound in the heart of the capital and shot the adviser with a pistol as he came out of a small shop with articles he had just bought. The woman was taken into Afghan custody shortly after the attack.

Just ahead of a trip to Washington by President Hamid Karzai, the Afghan government released 80 detainees on Friday January 4, 2013, part of a continuing effort to assert its sovereignty over the contentious issue of how prisoners are handled. American officials have long complained that the Afghans release prisoners too soon, raising the risk that many will return to the battlefield. Afghan officials counter that they are not legally allowed to detain people suspected of being insurgents without enough evidence to prosecute them, even if the Americans say they are too dangerous to release. The releases stem from an agreement the Americans made to eventually transfer control of the Parwan Detention Facility, located at Bagram Air Base, to the Afghan government last March. Of the thousands of prisoners captured by American forces who have come under Afghan control, close to 1,000 have been released over the last year.

Critics expressed worries Monday February 18, 2013, that a presidential order barring Afghan security forces from requesting international airstrikes during operations in residential areas could weaken government troops. President Hamid Karzai officially issued the order on Monday two days after promising to do so amid anger over a NATO airstrike requested by the national intelligence service that local officials said killed at least 10 civilians and four insurgents. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said he believes the American-led NATO coalition can operate effectively despite the ban.

On Monday February 25, 201`3, we were told that the Afghan government has ordered US Special Forces to leave one of Afghanistan's most restive provinces, Maidan Wardak, after receiving reports from local officials claiming that the elite units had been involved in the torture and disappearance of Afghan civilians. US military officials have rejected the allegations but President Hamid Karzai, who convened a meeting of the Afghan national Security Council on Sunday, appears to believe the evidence was strong enough to demand US Special Forces leave Maidan Wardak within two weeks. Security in the province bordering Kabul has deteriorated over the past year, and it has become a focus of US-led efforts to stop insurgents reaching the capital. The provincial governor and other officials from Maidan Wardak presented evidence against US forces at the National Security Council meeting. The presidential palace later issued a statement saying: "After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as US Special Forces stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people.

If Kabul Bank’s founder, Sherkhan Farnood, had not decided on a summer day three years ago that revenge was worth self-incrimination, he might never have seen the inside of a courtroom. But the halting and often obstructed investigation he helped fuel that day culminated on Tuesday March 5, 2013, with the first convictions in the Kabul Bank fraud scandal, a spectacular implosion of corruption that has undermined the credibility of the Afghan government and its Western benefactors. Mr. Farnood was one of 21 people found guilty. The two masterminds were convicted of a crime akin to fraud, sentenced to five years in prison and fined hundreds of millions of dollars, considerably lesser results than prosecutors had sought.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ratcheted up his criticism of the United States on Sunday March 10, 2013, marring a debut visit by the new U.S. defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, and highlighting tensions that could undermine Washington's strategy to wind down the unpopular war. A day after two Taliban bombings killed 17 people, Karzai accused the United States and the Taliban of colluding to convince Afghans that foreign forces were needed beyond 2014, when NATO is set to wrap up its combat mission and most troops withdraw. Hours after Karzai's speech, Hagel said he spoke "clearly and directly" about the comments during his first meeting with the Afghan leader since becoming U.S. defence secretary on February 27.

President Hamid Karzai held talks with Qatari leaders on Sunday March 31, 2013, on a visit the Kabul government has said would seek to explore the possibility of talks with Taliban insurgents on ending Afghanistan's war.  Karzai's trip to the Gulf Arab state, a U.S. ally which has mediated in conflicts in Arab or Muslim countries, follows years of stalled discussions among the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban about a possible Afghan settlement. Karzai wanted to "discuss the peace process and the opening of a Taliban office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with Afghanistan. The Kabul government has been pushing hard to get the Taliban to the negotiating table before foreign troops withdraw.

IRAQ has executed al-Qaeda's former Baghdad chief and three other men convicted of terror-related offences we were told on Monday April 1, 2013. The executions brought to 22 the number of times Iraq has carried out the death penalty so far this year, compared with 129 in 2012. Among the group executed was Munaf Abdul Rahim al-Rawi, once described as the "governor of Baghdad" for al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, who was arrested in March 2010. He has been blamed for plotting two massive attacks in the Iraqi capital in August and October of 2009 that left 250 dead in total.

Up to 74 girls have been treated after a suspected poisoning attack at their school we were told Monday April 22, 2013. The girls became ill after smelling gas at their school, Bibi Maryam, in Takhar province's capital, Taluqan. Many of the children remained in a critical condition in hospital last night.

Afghanistan Wednesday April 24, 2013:

1. Flash floods in northern Afghanistan killed at least 14 people. The flooding deaths occurred in Balkh province, where heavy rains on Tuesday sent deluges down hillsides of villages in the remote districts of Kishindih, Sholgara and Nahri Shai. Five people were missing, 1,795 families were displaced from their homes, and many livestock died, said two local officials. In its preliminary report, the UN said flooding also closed major roads in Balkh.
2. Heavy rains caused similar flash floods in Sari Pul, the neighbouring province to the south, damaging more than 100 homes, said the United Nations, which was co-ordinating disaster relief across both areas.

1. An earthquake that struck the northeast and neighbouring Pakistan left 11 people dead and scores injured. The quake caused casualties in two neighbouring provinces of Afghanistan that border Pakistan.

 

1. In Nangarhar province, at least 10 people killed and 110 were injured, and about 100 houses destroyed or damaged.

1. In Kunar province, one person died, three were injured and dozens of houses were damaged.

 

1. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicentre of the magnitude-5.7 earthquake was 11 kilometres south of Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province. The temblor had a depth of 66 kilometres. It was felt in Kabul, many parts of eastern Afghanistan, and as far away as Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. There were some reports of minor damage in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

A bus collided on Friday April 26, 2013, with the wreckage of a truck that had been attacked by Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing 45 people aboard the bus. The battered oil tanker had been left in the middle of a narrow road near the border of Kandahar and Helmand provinces for several days after insurgents attacked it. Police considered the area too dangerous to enter. Before sunrise Friday, the bus smashed into the truck and burst into flames. Police, soldiers and ambulances rushed to the crash site in a desolate area. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition and it will be difficult to establish their identities.

A civilian cargo aircraft crashed at Bagram Air Field soon after takeoff on Monday April 29, 2013. It is not immediately known if there were casualties. Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the crash, but the coalition said that there was no enemy activity or involvement during this incident."

 

President Hamid Karzai accused U.S. forces of killing four civilians and wounding one in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Sunday April 28, 2013, after an American' convoy was attacked by insurgents. Karzai "strongly condemned the killing of innocent civilians." The coalition was still investigating the clash, which left four soldiers with minor injuries and damaged a patrol vehicle. The Taliban attacked the coalition patrol with small arms fire and roadside bombs as it moved through a local bazaar in the province where there were civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday May 9, 2013, that his government is now ready to let the U.S. have nine bases across Afghanistan after most foreign troops withdraw in 2014. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the U.S. “does not seek permanent military bases in Afghanistan.” The U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after 2014 would be “only at the request of the Afghan government,” Carney said.

Afghanistan has accused Iran of holding as many as 21 migrant Afghan workers following a border shooting incident during the weekend and has filed a formal complaint to Tehran we were told on Sunday May 12, 2013. Iranian border guards opened fire on the Afghan labourers on Friday as they tried to cross the boundary illegally looking for work.

On Sunday May 19, 2013, conservative religious politicians blocked legislation aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience. The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ousting of the hardline Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes. Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative politician for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.

Gunmen kidnapped the father of Afghanistan’s national cricket team captain near his home in an eastern city, we were told on Thursday May 23, 2013. There has been no ransom demand since Mohammad Nabi’s 60-year-old father Khobi Khan was abducted from his car in the city of Jalalabad.

Baghdad has warned Israel against violating its airspace in order to strike Iran's nuclear facilities we were told on Monday June 3, 2013. The US had already assured Iraqi officials that it would not use Iraqi airspace in order to attack Iran.

Germany and Italy will join the United States as “lead nations” in regions of Afghanistan after NATO transitions into a noncombat mission there after 2014, we were told on Wednesday June 5, 2013. How many troops NATO will maintain in Afghanistan after the end of 2014 is not yet decided —a key unresolved question about how to help the impoverished, insurgency-wracked nation stabilize in the years to come.

On Wednesday June 19, 2013, Afghanistan has suspended talks with the US to discuss the nature of US military presence after foreign troops withdraw in 2014. The decision was taken over "contradictions" in the US proposal of direct talks with the Taliban. Mr Karzai also ruled out talking to the Taliban until the peace process was "Afghan-led". A condition for the talks was for the Taliban to renounce violence. However, US President Barack Obama did not make a ceasefire part of the preliminary negotiations.

On Thursday June 20, 2013, Mr. Karzai reacted in fury after an apparent diplomatic breakthrough on Tuesday —the opening of a Taliban peace office in Qatar— instead became a publicity coup for the Taliban. In televised images that horrified many Afghans, the Taliban introduced what appeared to be an embassy, raising their flag, speaking in front of a sign declaring the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the name of their former government and seeking international exposure. First, Mr. Karzai broke off long-term security talks with the United States, accusing the Americans of failing to deliver on promises to keep the Taliban from grandstanding. Soon after, his office announced that the government delegation would stay away from the talks until the insurgents removed their symbolic displays of being an alternative government. The president’s gambit appeared to work: In a turbulent 24 hours of nonstop diplomatic moves, Secretary of State John Kerry called Mr. Karzai three times and successfully pushed the Qatari government to get the Taliban to take down the sign and flag. However, there was much to repair from the events of the past two days, and many Afghan political figures expressed a sense of having been betrayed by both the Americans and the Taliban.

A fresh effort to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war looked in disarray on Thursday June 20, 2013, after a diplomatic row about the Taliban's new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the US and the Islamist insurgents. Talks between US officials and Taliban representatives had been set for Thursday in the Gulf state but Afghan government anger at the opening of a Taliban office there threw preparations into confusion. The dispute may set the tone for what could be long and arduous negotiations to end a war that has raged since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Asked when the talks would now take place, a source in Doha told Reuters: "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of." Asked if that meant they would not happen on Thursday, the source added: "Yes, that's correct."

Afghanistan's government reaffirmed support Sunday June 23, 2013, for possible talks with its Taliban foes, but demanded full explanations on how the group was allowed to raise its flag in Qatar and display other symbols that have stalled the U.S.-led effort. The on-going dispute over the Taliban compound in Doha —which the Afghan government said appeared as something akin to an embassy in exile instead of a political outpost when it opened— underscore the extreme difficulties in just trying to launch dialogue after nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman, Shaheen Suhail, reasserted the Islamic movement's dismay over the controversy and made it clear that the Taliban had made no offers or concessions following U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's warning a day earlier that their newly opened office could be forced to close if the spat remained unresolved.

A court in Kabul ordered the early release of three people convicted over the torture of a child bride we were told on Saturday July 13, 2013. Sahar Gul, who was 15 at the time her ordeal, was burned, beaten and had her fingernails pulled out by her husband and in-laws after she refused to become a prostitute in a case that shocked the world. She was found in the basement of her husband’s house in northeastern Baghlan province in late 2011, having been locked in a toilet for six months prior to her rescue by police. Her father-in-law, mother-in-law and sister-in-law were sentenced to prison for 10 years each for torture and attempted murder, though her husband remains at large. But after the court reviewed their case, it found out that they were only involved in family violence. The court did not have enough evidence against them and a fresh prosecution would be launched. Afghan rights groups expressed indignation over the early releases, calling it a step back in time for Afghanistan’s women.

The Afghan parliament voted to sack the nation’s interior minister Monday July 22, 2013, blaming him for growing security problems as local forces take greater responsibility for the country's security. But the official, Ghulam Mujtaba Patang, fought back in a news conference a few hours later. He is expected to remain in office on an interim basis after President Hamid Karzai referred the matter to the nation’s Supreme Court. Lawmakers in the 250-member parliament voted 163 to 60 to dismiss Patang, who oversees approximately 160,000 Afghan police and security forces. Patang gave his own version of events, saying his nine months in office have been marked by interference from government officials, drug mafia groups, private security thugs and those trying to grab land illegally. Since he was named, Patang said, he’s been called 93 times to address the Afghan lower house of parliament and 79 times to the senate. He also criticized lawmakers for using more than 1,500 police officers as personal guards. Those officers no longer answer to the ministry.

On Wednesday August 14, 2013, the Taliban have kidnapped a female Afghan MP as she and her children were travelling in a rural area south of the capital Kabul. Fariba Ahmadi Kakar was abducted by armed men while travelling in the central province of Ghazni with her three daughters. It is the first time a female MP has been snatched by insurgents. The kidnappers had demanded the release of four Taliban prisoners in exchange for Mrs Kakar. Ms Kakar's children were later released in an operation involving Nato forces and Afghan intelligence but she is said to be being held in a separate location. Just last month, the most senior policewoman in southern Helmand province was shot dead on her way to work. And last week, Afghan senator Rooh Gul and her husband survived an attack in Ghazni in which their daughter was killed.

On Wednesday August 14, 2013, the Taliban have kidnapped a female Afghan MP as she and her children were travelling in a rural area south of the capital Kabul. Fariba Ahmadi Kakar was abducted by armed men while travelling in the central province of Ghazni with her three daughters. It is the first time a female MP has been snatched by insurgents. The kidnappers had demanded the release of four Taliban prisoners in exchange for Mrs Kakar. Ms Kakar's children were later released in an operation involving Nato forces and Afghan intelligence but she is said to be being held in a separate location. Just last month, the most senior policewoman in southern Helmand province was shot dead on her way to work. And last week, Afghan senator Rooh Gul and her husband survived an attack in Ghazni in which their daughter was killed.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday September 1, 2013, promoted his trusted envoy to Pakistan and former chief of staff to be the country's internal security chief, a move that drew criticism from opposition leaders as an attempt to shape the country's crucial elections next spring. The news came as a surprise for much of Afghanistan's political elite. The newly appointed acting interior minister, Umar Daudzai, was himself viewed as a possible heavyweight contender in Afghanistan's presidential campaign, which begins in earnest in just a few weeks with the formal announcement of candidates. The constitution doesn't allow Mr. Karzai to run for a third term. Separately, the government made another key appointment, naming Kabul police chief General Ayub Salangi as the deputy interior minister for security.

Six boys were killed on a swimming outing in northern Afghanistan, apparently the victims of fishermen who fired a rocket into a river. The suspects were identified as policemen, and six of them were arrested, including their commander. The episode took place on Saturday August 31, 2013, in the village of Drumbak, in Baghlan Province, when policemen on one side of the Larkhab River fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the water. But the round went astray and exploded among a group of children bathing on the opposite shore, about 50 yards away. Six boys, aged from 9 to 14, were killed instantly; two of them were in the shallow water near the riverbank, and the other four were on the bank. Two other children, a boy and a girl, were wounded.

On Tuesday September 3, 2013, authorities arrested eight police officers accused of killing six children when they misused their weapons while fishing. The six children were killed on Friday in the Doshi district of Baghlan province. The police are suspected of firing rockets into a fishing pond when one rocket missed its target, hitting a crowd of children nearby. Two children also were wounded. A military prosecutor's office is investigating the eight police officers in custody. There were reports that at least one of the police officers was related to a powerful warlord.

At least 18 Taliban prisoners, some of them prominent figures, were released by Pakistan and Afghanistan, with no guarantees that they would not rejoin the insurgency we were told on Saturday September 7, 2013. Pakistan has released seven Taliban prisoners to facilitate the peace process, while Afghan officials said they had requested the releases and welcomed the move. Afghan officials complained, however, that Pakistani officials had backed down on the expected release of one Taliban prisoner, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, formerly the top military commander of the insurgents’ movement. Afghan officials have long sought Mr. Baradar’s release, viewing him as crucial to restarting peace talks. Separately, Afghan officials confirmed Saturday that the day before they had exchanged 11 Taliban prisoners to obtain the release of a female member of the Afghan Parliament, who had been kidnapped by the insurgents last month.

Afghans on Monday September 9, 2013, honored a rebel leader who was slain two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks, and whose fellow fighters helped the U.S. overthrow the Taliban government. The annual commemoration marks the anniversary of the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a legendary ethnic Tajik commander of the Northern Alliance. He remains widely admired in this country for his resistance to Soviet rule as well as to the Taliban, whose harsh interpretation of Islam made life unbearable for numerous Afghans in the late 1990s. Massoud was killed on September 9, 2001, by al-Qaida suicide bombers posing as journalists, an assassination suspected of being linked to the later attacks on the United States.

At least 27 miners have been killed in a collapse in a coal mine, we were told on Sunday September 15, 2013. The collapse occurred on Saturday evening in the northern province of Samangan. Rescue teams have recovered 27 dead miners and there are 22 more wounded" but all trapped miners had been rescued.

Iraqi Kurdistan's main opposition party has come in second in the autonomous region's parliamentary election, according to preliminary results on Saturday September 28, 2013, that left the shape of the government still unclear a week after the vote. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) share power in the previous cabinet with a combined 59 out of 111 parliamentary seats, having fought out their rivalries in a civil war during the 1990s. But the Gorran (Change) party has rapidly built a following among those disenchanted with corruption and the lack of transparency, particularly around revenues from the region's oil. ---

A candidate for next year’s provincial council (PC) elections was gunned down by unknown assailants in the Nijrab district of northeastern Kapisa province we were told on Saturday October 19, 2013. Abdul Qadir, a former commander of the Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan, was riding a motorcycle along with his daughter on Friday evening when unknown gunmen opened fire at them near the district centre.

An Afghan army Special Forces commander has defected to an insurgent group allied with the Taliban in a Humvee truck packed with his team’s guns and high-tech equipment we were told on Sunday October 20, 2013. Monsif Khan, who raided the supplies of his 20-man team in Kunar’s capital Asadabad over the Eid Al-Adha religious holiday, is the first Special Forces commander to switch sides, joining the Hezb-e-Islami organization. He sent some of his comrades on leave and paid others to go out sightseeing, and then escaped with up to 30 guns, night-vision goggles, binoculars and a Humvee. A spokesman for Hezb-e-Islami, confirmed that Khan had joined the group, saying he had brought 15 guns and high-tech equipment.

A mine collapse in northern Afghanistan left at least 27 people dead and injured many others we were told on Sunday October 20, 2013. This is a major setback to an industry that has been touted as the best hope for bringing new wealth to this impoverished country.

On Tuesday October 22, 2013, the government of Afghanistan has rejected the alleged release of Pakistani prisoners from the Afghanistan jails. The release of Pakistani prisoners from the Afghan jails was raised two times by the leaders of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Fazal (JUI-F) following their visit to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Thursday October 24, 2013:

• A roadside bomb planted in western Afghanistan killed six Afghan soldiers, as soldiers killed 10 Taliban fighters during an operation elsewhere in the country. The six died when their vehicle struck the bomb in the western Herat province's Adraskan district. The six were from a unit based at the Shindand military airport, Herat's largest. Those killed included two officers and four soldiers.
• Meanwhile, in southern Helmand province, Afghan soldiers killed 10 Taliban fighters in the Nad Ali district. The deaths came after a four-hour firefight and that no Afghan soldier was killed.
• In another incident, a tractor hit a road mine in the Jani Khil district, killing one person and wounding four.

 

Saturday November 16, 2013, Karzai called for the Loya Jirga, a national consultative assembly of tribal elders, which will begin meeting Thursday to discuss the proposal of a treaty between Afghanistan and the USA allowing American soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014 when they were supposed to leave. Some 3,000 elders and influential figures will debate the Bilateral Security Agreement. Without its approval, Afghanistan likely will refuse to sign the agreement. If the Loya Jirga does approve it, the agreement still requires final approval from parliament.

The Afghan government has rejected a key proposal of a security agreement with the US, putting the entire deal in doubt days before Afghan tribal leaders gather in Kabul to consider the matter. The government in Kabul is refusing to allow US forces to enter Afghan homes after combat operations end next year. Negotiations are going on to produce a document acceptable to both sides, to present to Afghan elders on Thursday November 21, 2013. If there is no deal, Washington could pull out all its troops next year.

President Hamid Karzai told his countrymen on Thursday November 21, 2013, a vital security pact with the United States should not be signed until after Afghanistan's presidential election next April, prompting the White House to underscore its demand for a year-end deadline. Karzai's surprise move, which came just a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the pact's language had been agreed upon, suddenly threw its future into question and seemed certain to reignite tensions with Washington. The Afghan leader spoke to about 2,500 tribal elders and political leaders from across Afghanistan gathered in the capital for a Loya Jirga, or grand council, to debate whether to allow U.S. troops to stay after the planned 2014 drawdown of foreign forces. Without an accord on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), the United States says it could pull out all its troops at the end of 2014 and leave Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency on their own.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday November 22, 2013, rejected a call by the United States to sign a security pact by the end of the year rather than after next year's presidential election. Karzai had suggested on Thursday, as the Afghan leaders began a meeting known as a Loya Jirga that the signing of the pact to let U.S. troops remain in the country after 2014 should wait until after the poll. Having served two terms, he is ineligible to run again. In response, a White House spokesman later said President Barack Obama wanted the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) signed by the end of the year. Obama would decide about the further U.S. presence after Afghan authorities approved the deal.

On Friday November 23, 2013, Afghan elders at a grand assembly in Kabul have called for a security deal with the US to be signed this year. The pact allows thousands of US troops to remain in Afghanistan once combat operations end in 2014. But President Hamid Karzai, who wants to delay the deal, told delegates he would only sign it once the US had brought peace to his country. The US has said it is neither "practical nor possible" to delay the signing. The Bilateral Security Agreement also has to be approved by the Afghan parliament. The deal under discussion may see 15,000 foreign troops remain after 2014, although the US says it has not yet taken a decision on any presence. The soldiers who stay beyond 2014, when most foreign combat forces leave, would primarily train and mentor Afghan forces. Some special forces would stay to conduct "counter-terror operations".

An assembly of Afghan elders endorsed a crucial security deal on Sunday November 24, 2013, to enable U.S. troops to operate in the country beyond next year, but President Hamid Karzai left the matter up in the air by refusing to say whether he would sign it into law. The gathering, known as the Loya Jirga, had been convened by the president to debate the pact outlines the legal terms of continued U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. It voted in favour and advised Karzai sign it promptly. But Karzai, in his final remarks to the four-day meeting, said he would not sign it until after a presidential election due next April. ---

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the United States to halt all military operations on civilians' homes and demonstrate a clear commitment to launching the peace process before a crucial security pact is signed we were told on Tuesday November 26, 2013. Karzai outlined the terms of his conditions in a meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy and the NATO commander in Afghanistan. These included returning Afghan citizens from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as a step in launching the peace process in Afghanistan.

On Sunday December 1, 2013, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and his national security council have accused the United States of cutting military supplies, including fuel, to put pressure on the country to sign a security. The US embassy in Kabul denied that supplies had been cut. US officials said logistical problems in Pakistan might have given rise to the alleged delays in deliveries. Karzai's relationship with the United States has worsened since he invited thousands of elders to vote on the security deal last week and then ignored their advice, which was to sign it promptly. The pact's terms were settled after about a year of wrangling, but Karzai has since added conditions that include the release of all Afghan prisoners from Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and an end to military operations involving Afghan homes.

Concerned about the presence of foreign forces in the region, Iran and Afghanistan have decided to sign a joint cooperation agreement to boost “regional security” amid American efforts to force the Afghan president to seal a security pact with Washington. “Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran,” President’s Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said adding “The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace.” Afghan President Hamid Karzai reached the deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Sunday December 8, 2013. At the meeting Rouhani voiced Iran’s strong opposition to foreign presence and its destabilizing effect for the region. ---

The Afghan government said on Tuesday December 24, 2013, that it has released more than 500 Afghan and Pakistani Taliban prisoners during the past 15 months. At least 536 Taliban militants including several Pakistani nationals were released on presidential decrees and on the request of the Afghan high peace council. A number of high profile Taliban leaders including close aides of the Taliban fugitive leader Mullah Omar were also among those who were released to assist peace process in the war-torn country. This comes while Afghanistan is seeking help from neighboring Pakistan to open up a direct channel of communication with Taliban militants. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged Pakistan several times to facilitate the peace talks with the militant group.

Afghanistan has enough evidence to try only 16 of 88 prisoners that the United States considers a threat to security and plans to free the remaining detainees we were told on Thursday January 9, 2014. The United States is strongly opposed to their release because it says the prisoners have been involved in the wounding or killing of U.S. and coalition troops. The move will further strain relations between the two countries, already near breaking point over President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a security deal to shape the U.S. military presence after most foreign troops leave this year.

On Saturday January 11, 2014, Afghan president Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of all but 16 prisoners from a group of 88 that Washington says pose a threat to the country and region. Mr. Karzai said a review of the prisoners’ cases by Afghan intelligence and judicial officials had turned up no evidence of wrongdoing in 45 cases, while there was insufficient evidence in another 27, and that those 72 detainees must be released. The remaining 16 will remain in custody until their cases can be reviewed further. ---

On Monday January 27, 2014, we were told that a group of 37 prisoners in a former US detention facility (Bagram prison) is slated for release within two weeks by the Afghan government. The news of the release came after a weeks-long row between Kabul and Washington, which categorised the detainees as “dangerous”. According to the US “40 percent have participated in direct attacks wounding or killing 57 Afghan citizens and security force members and 30 percent participated in direct attacks wounding or killing 60 US or coalition force members.” Though Washington maintains it provided sufficient evidence of the dangers posed by a total of 88 disputed detainees, the Afghan Review Board, led by Abdul Shakoor Dadras, said there was insufficient evidence to support any claims that these inmates would return to the armed opposition.

Afghanistan said it would press ahead with the release of scores of alleged Taliban fighters from jail despite US objections that the men were a threat to NATO and Afghan forces. Kabul announced on January 9 that a total of 72 detainees held at Bagram jail near the capital would be freed due to lack of evidence, sparking strong condemnation from the United States. Afghan authorities "concluded that the there is no evidence against 72 out of 88 prisoners. We reviewed their cases again after objections by the US forces, and for now we will release 65 prisoners. The issue threatens to further strain US-Afghan relations amid pressure for the two countries to sign a long-delayed security deal allowing some American soldiers to stay in the country after 2014.

Afghan authorities released 65 detainees from a detention facility Thursday February 13, 2014, in direct defiance of protests from the United States, which said the men were connected to the killing of Afghan civilians and coalition forces. The U.S. command says more than two dozen of the men who were freed have been linked to the deaths of 32 U.S. and allied troops, have ties to the most violent terror groups in Afghanistan and were caught with weapons and materials for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs. They were being held at the Afghan National Detention Facility-Parwan.

Afghanistan has halted conservation work at a site once occupied by ancient Buddha statues destroyed by the Taleban because the team involved is suspected of secretly trying to rebuild one of the statue’s feet. Any attempt to rebuild the statues without official permission could lead to the site losing its World Heritage status. The Taleban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, decreed in early 2001 that two ancient giant Buddha statues in the valley in Bamiyan province were un-Islamic and ordered they be destroyed. They were blown up with dynamite the next month. The German wing of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had been working alongside the United Nations in the valley, aiming to reinforce the cliff into which the Buddha statues were carved. But the work was halted after a team from the UN cultural agency UNESCO visited the site in December and found pillars built into the rock which looked suspiciously like feet.

Afghan Vice President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, formerly one of the country's much-feared warlords, has died of natural causes we were told on Sunday March 9, 2014. Fahim, a leader of the Tajik ethnic minority, served as senior vice president to President Hamid Karzai, who is due to step down at elections next month as NATO combat forces pull out of Afghanistan after 13 years of fighting the Taliban. Aged 56, Fahim was accused of being a ruthless strongman who maintained his own militia forces, but he also received American support as Afghanistan sought stability after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Afghanistan on Thursday March 20, 2014, freed 77 prisoners captured by foreign troops, despite opposition from Britain and NATO-led forces which said they could pose a security threat. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government has long complained that foreign forces have locked up many Afghans on dubious grounds and with no proper judicial process. A similar release last month caused tension with the United States. The latest batch walked free from Bagram prison, which was transferred to Afghan control last year. ---

Three Taliban insurgents escaped from a prison in northern Afghanistan using weapons smuggled into the facility in a jailbreak that killed three police guards. A fourth inmate who was also trying to escape was killed in a shootout with security forces. The fugitives are low-level Taliban operatives who were jailed for planting roadside bombs. The four inmates launched their breakout during the nightly count of prisoners, throwing several grenades and shooting guards with at least one pistol.

500 people are feared dead, after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a third of a village in north-eastern Afghanistan. At least 400 to 500 people are still under a huge landslide, and they are all believed to be dead. This number may increase. A hill collapsed on Friday May 2, 2014, on the village of Hobo Barik, Badakshan province. Around 300 homes were buried in the landslide. Rescue workers are now working to find those trapped, but are struggling due to a lack of equipment.

A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday May 2, 2014, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path. The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest. 2,000 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes, about a third of all the houses in the area.

Afghan rescuers and hundreds of volunteers armed with shovels and little more than their bare hands dug through earth and mud Saturday May 3, 2014, looking for survivors or bodies of loved ones killed by a massive landslide in the remote northeast. Figures on the number of people killed and missing in the disaster Friday varied from 255 to 2,700 as officials tried to gather precise information. Fears of a new landslide complicated rescue efforts, and with homes and residents buried under metres of mud, officials said the earth from the landslide likely would be their final resting place. The United Nations said Friday at least 350 people died, and the provincial governor said as many as 2,000 people were feared missing. On Saturday, the International Organization of Migration said information they gathered from provincial figures and local community leaders indicated that 2,700 people were dead or missing.

At least 40 suicide jackets were seized by security forces at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border we were told on Monday May 5, 2014. The jackets without explosives were smuggled into Pakistan Sunday from Afghanistan through the Torkham border with the intention of being used for suicide missions. The jackets would be filled with explosives with the help of local operators once they reach Pakistan. Security personnel arrested an Afghan national who was smuggling the jackets into Pakistan. ---

At least three policemen were killed and eight others injured on Tuesday May 20, 2014, when two police vehicles collided in Jowzjan province in Afghanistan. Those injured were immediately shifted to a nearby hospital.

Flash floods have killed more than 70 people in northern Afghanistan, washing away hundreds of homes and forcing thousands to flee we were told on Saturday June 7, 2014, warning that the death toll was expected to rise. The floods in the remote mountainous district of Baghlan province come a month after a landslide triggered by heavy rains buried a village and killed 300 people in a nearby region. People have lost everything they had —houses, property, villages, agricultural fields, cattle. There’s nothing left for them to survive. People don’t even having drinking water. They urgently need water, food items, blankets and tents.

At least five people were killed and 13 injured on Saturday June 28, 2014, when a bus crashed head-on with a truck in Afghanistan. The accident took place in Durrahi Hyratan area in the province of Balkh. There were women and children among the victims.

Forty-five Taliban militants Tuesday August 12, 2014, gave up fighting and joined the government-backed peace process in Afghanistan's Saripul province. The former militants handed their weapons to police in the ceremony. ---

The suspected illegal immigrants found in a shipping container at the port of Tilbury (England) are from Afghanistan. One man among the group of 35 men, women and children was found dead when port staff discovered the stowaways early on Saturday August 16, 2014. A postmortem was being carried out on Sunday. Four remain at Southend hospital although they are expected to be released soon. The other 30 have been discharged from hospital and are in the care of Essex police and Border Force staff at Tilbury. Initial reports said the group was from the Indian region, possibly Punjab; the migrants are thought to be Sikhs from Afghanistan. The group was found inside a container when they were heard screaming and banging. Many were suffering from dehydration and hypothermia.

On Wednesday September 3, 2014, the Islamic State is challenging the Taliban and al-Qaeda in its Afghanistan and Pakistan heartlands and claiming both countries as part of its ‘caliphate’. Islamic Slate leaflets proclaiming the group’s intention to bring its barbaric form of Islam to Pakistan and Afghanistan were posted throughout Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa frontier province, in the last few days, and have also been distributed to nearby Afghan refugee camps. The leaflets, published in the local Pashto and Darri languages and bearing the Isil 'Fateh' (victory) flag, said the 'caliphate' it had established in Syria and Iraq extended to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and some Muslim central Asian republics. They called for unity among Muslims and committed themselves to victory or martyrdom in their fight to recreate the 'caliphate'.
Afghanistan has handed the death penalty to seven men for raping and robbing a group of women returning from a wedding, in a rare case of sexual assault that has shaken the capital and raised concerns over public security at a time of transition.

A large group of men, some dressed in police uniforms, and with assault rifles, stopped a convoy of cars in which the women were travelling along with their families in the district of Paghman, just outside Kabul, last month we were told on Sunday September 7, 2014. They dragged four women out of the cars in the middle of the night and raped them in the field near the main road. One of them was pregnant. The victims were also beaten and their jewels and mobile phones stolen. Crimes against women are common but mostly take place inside homes in Afghanistan's conservative society. But a gang-rape by armed men is rare in Kabul and has tapped into a vein of anxiety as foreign troops leave the country and a badly stretched domestic army and police fight a deadly Taliban insurgency. Judge Safihullah Mujadidi convicted the men of armed robbery and sexual assault. ---

There is a movement to rebuild the Buddha of Bamiyan, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, in order to promote tourism in Afghanistan. The 6th century statues survived a siege by none other than Genghis Khan in 1221. In 2001, however, Taliban leader Mullah Omar called for their destruction after deeming the Buddha idolatrous. The sculptures were blown to pieces, leaving behind two empty niches, which stand as a constant reminder of what has been lost.

The execution of five men in Afghanistan who had been convicted over a gang rape following a series of flawed trials is an affront to justice. Five men convicted of armed robbery and zina (sex outside marriage) in relation to the gang rape of four women in Paghman district outside of Kabul on 22 August were executed today October 8, 2014, in Pul-e-Charkhi jail. They were first sentenced to death on 7 September, a sentence later upheld in an appeals court (15 September) and by the Supreme Court (24 September), and confirmed by then-President Hamid Karzai. ---

Isis, the militant group that claims to have established a “caliphate” across Iraq and Syria, has now reportedly extended its territories into Afghanistan for the first time. The so-called “Islamic State” is actively recruiting and operating across the south of the country. A man identified as Mullah Abdul Rauf has been claiming to represent Isis in the region, setting up a network of followers who are inviting people to join them across the southern Helmand province. They have clashed with the local Taliban whose leaders have warned people to have nothing to do with Rauf. “A number of tribal leaders, jihadi commanders and some ulema (religious council members) and other people have said that Mullah Rauf had contacted them and invited them to join him.”

 

On Sunday January 18, 2015, Lieutenant-General Murad Ali Murad, commander of Afghan army's ground forces, said that "elements under the ISIL flag" have been trying recruit fighters in Afghanistan. Taliban said that all Mujahideen [self-declared holy warriors] fight under one flag, rejecting the claims. Afghan army said it could handle any kind of enemy, regardless of their affiliation.

Afghan lawmakers on Wednesday January 28, 2015, rejected most of President Ashraf Ghani's nominees for the new cabinet. The lower house of parliament voted on 18 of Ghani's 25 selections for ministerial jobs and rejected 10 of them including the proposed defence minister. Those who won approval included Salahuddin Rabbani, the former head of the Peace Council and nominee for foreign affairs minister, and Noorul Haq Ulumi, the nominee for interior minister. But last week parliament told Ghani that seven of his nominees were ineligible because they held dual nationalities. Rabbani and Ulumi renounced their foreign citizenships to qualify, and MPs also approved Rahmatullah Nabil as the director of the NDS intelligence agency. Those rejected included Sher Mohammad Karim, the current army chief of staff and nominee for defense minister, and Khatera Afghan, Ghani's choice for minister of higher education. Afghan was the only woman up for approval on Wednesday after two other female nominees were excluded from the vote, one because of dual nationality and one for having "insufficient educational documents".

A bus crash in western Afghanistan has killed seven people and wounded 12 others on Thursday February 5, 2015. The bus was travelling fast on a narrow road and the driver apparently lost control. Among the dead are several children. The same narrow stretch of road was the site of a similar bus crash last month that killed 22 people. ---

Avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 124 people in northeastern Afghanistan, we were told on Wednesday February 25, 2015, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath. The avalanches buried homes across four northeast provinces, killing those beneath. The province worst hit appeared to be Panjshir province, about 100 kilometers northeast of the capital, Kabul, where the avalanches destroyed or damaged around 100 homes. The rescuers used their bare hands and shovels in an effort to reach survivors. Rescue teams had been dispatched to the affected areas and casualties were expected to rise. The heavy snowstorms, which began early Tuesday, hampered rescue efforts. Snow fall from the storm was nearly 1-meter deep in places and fallen trees blocked roads in the Panjshir Valley.

Afghanistan has executed one of the country’s most dangerous criminals, a man who was charged with a string of armed robberies, kidnappings and killings of Afghans and foreigners across the country. Raees Khudaidad was hanged at Kabul’s main prison on Saturday morning February 28, 2015, in the presence of senior officials from the country’s judiciary and attorney general’s office. Khudaidad operated a crime ring that operated in several countries, and that he had lived in Pakistan, Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates under different identities. He was believed responsible for dozens of killings. Khudaidad was arrested during a special security force operation in Kabul last year.

The number of those killed by the avalanches and floods which submerged entire villages throughout northern Afghanistan has risen to 310 we were told on Monday March 2, 2015. The Panjshir Valley, where 196 bodies have been recovered so far, was the worst hit, but snow slides and flash floods have caused death and destruction throughout northern Afghanistan over the last two weeks. There were more avalanches earlier on Monday in Panjshir Valley.

A riot has broken out inside a prison in Afghanistan’s northern Jowzjan Province, resulting in the killing of two police officers and one inmate. Inmates held at least five people hostage Sunday March 8, 2015, after a riot wounded also five police officers and 10 inmates. The officers came under attack while they conducted a search for cellphones, knives and other contraband inside the prison. The prison complex, located in Shebirghan, the provincial capital, holds some 800 inmates in separate male and female lockups. Its prisoners are from both Jawzjan and neighboring Sari Pul province.

Meanwhile in eastern Nangarhar province on Sunday March 8, 2015, heavy rain caused the roof to collapse on a home in Dare Noor district, killing at least 10 members of a single family. Most houses in remote regions of Afghanistan are made of mud bricks, which weaken during heavy rain and snow every winter. Most of the country's 34 provinces have been affected by severe weather in recent weeks, with almost 200 people killed in a massive avalanche in northeastern Panjshir province alone. ---

Shocking video has emerged on Thursday March 19, 2015, of a woman being beaten to death by an angry mob in Kabul. The 27-year-old victim, named only as 'Farkhunda' and who is believed to have been mentally ill, was lynched by a crowd of men near the Shah-e Doh Shamshira shrine and mosque after she was allegedly seen burning a copy of the Koran. The video of the attack shows the woman being battered, stamped on and beaten and struck with a piece of wood. One of the attackers hurls a brick at her as she lay on the ground, and others are seen kicking and punching her lifeless body. Her body was then taken to the Kabul River where it was burned.

Twenty-six people have been arrested in Afghanistan in connection to the death of a woman who was beaten by a mob, set on fire and thrown into the Kabul River. The 27-year-old woman –a religious scholar named Farkhunda– was beaten, pushed from a roof, run over by a car and set on fire before being tossed into the Kabul River on Thursday. She was accused of burning pages of a Quran. But senior police officials have maintained that the allegations were false. On Monday March 23, 2015, hundreds protested in Kabul to demand justice for Farkhunda, who was buried Sunday after her coffin was carried by women’s activists. Men are traditionally pallbearers in Kabul. Protesters gathering near the Shah Doshamshera mosque demanded the government prosecute all those responsible for her death. Thirteen cops based in the area of the mosque were suspended amid allegations they did nothing to stop the vicious attack. Despite early reports that Farkhunda was mentally ill, her father, Nadir, told CNN affiliate TOLOnews that she taught the Quran to children and that she would never burn the holy book. Her parents said the killing was instigated by a local mullah who had been angered by Farkhunda’s accusations that he was distributing false Tawiz, pieces of paper with Quran writings that are worn as pendants to bring good luck.

Afghanistan’s highest court has ruled that a police officer convicted of murdering an Associated Press photographer, Anja Niedringhaus, should serve 20 years in prison we were told on Saturday March 28, 2015. The final sentence for the officer, a commander named Naqibullah was reduced from the death sentence imposed by a lower court last year. Twenty years in prison is the maximum jail sentence in Afghanistan. Mr. Naqibullah opened fire on Ms. Niedringhaus and an A.P. correspondent, Kathy Gannon, without warning on April 4, 2014, as the two were covering the first round of the country’s presidential election outside the city of Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan. Ms. Niedringhaus, 48, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer from Germany. Ms. Gannon, a senior correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan from Canada, was hit by six bullets and is recovering from her injuries. ---

After months of delay, Afghanistan's parliament has approved 16 cabinet nominees, including four women. Now the 25-member cabinet of President Ashraf Ghani is nearly complete. There are four women among the newly appointed ministers: Farida Momand as higher education minister, Nasreen Oryakhil as labor minister, Dilbar Nazari as women's affairs minister and Salamat Azimi as counter-narcotics minister.

At least 52 people have been killed in a landslide in a remote part of north-eastern Afghanistan. The landslide happened in Khawhan district, Badakhshan province near the border with Tajikistan, early on Tuesday April 28, 2015. Badakhshan is one of the poorest and least developed regions of Afghanistan and regularly suffers landslides when the snows begin to melt in spring.

At least 18 people died and another three were injured when a minibus plummeted into a ravine in a remote area of the northwestern Badghis province. The accident was probably caused by excessive speed and careless driving. The accident happened early Sunday May 3, 2015, in Bala Murghab district. Badghis is one of Afghanistan’s poorest and least developed regions. Poorly-maintained roads and reckless driving are major issues in Afghanistan. Road fatalities top 6,000 annually.

An Afghan court on Wednesday May 6, 2015, convicted and sentenced four men to death for their role in the brutal mob killing of a woman in Kabul in March. The sentences were part of a trial of 49 suspects, including 19 police officers, over the March 19 killing of the 27-year-old woman named Farkhunda who was beaten to death in a frenzied attack sparked by a bogus accusation that she had burned a copy of the Qur'an. The trial, which began Saturday, only involved two full days of court proceedings. Judge Safiullah Mojadedi handed down the four death sentences at Afghanistan's Primary Court in Kabul on Wednesday. He also sentenced eight of the defendants to 16 years in prison and dropped charges against 18. The remaining suspects are to be sentenced on Sunday. The defendants have the right to appeal their sentences. The charges included assault, murder and encouraging others to participate in the assault. The police officers were charged with neglecting their duties and failing to prevent the attack. --

Signs of a divide in the Taliban emerged Sunday August 2, 2015, when the brother of former leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said he and others have yet to swear allegiance to the new head of the group. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor was named as the new leader following reports last week that Omar had died in 2013. Mullah Abdul Manan, who identified himself as Omar’s brother, said disagreements among members of the Islamic Emirate, as the group refers to itself, have kept many from swearing allegiance to Mansoor.

Ten children and one adult were killed late Monday August 24, 2015, in a series of explosions at a gas terminal in the western city of Herat. The victims lived in a camp for displaced people, which was near the gas terminal. At least 18 people were injured in the blasts. Four of the wounded were sent to Iran for treatment for 90 percent burns. A gas tanker first exploded and triggered blasts in a gas storage plant. It was unclear whether the explosions were a result of an accident or an attack.

At least 100 schoolchildren have been taken to the hospital after suspected gas poisoning in Herat Province, western Afghanistan. The incident took place at a school in the Shahrak-e-Jibrahil area in the city of Herat. "Some 100 students at a local high school were hospitalized Monday morning August 31, 2015 after they felt dizzy and several fell unconscious. All the victims of the suspected poisoning were girls. ---

Around three dozen school girls were poisoned in Afghanistan’s Herat province on Monday September 7, 2015. At least 35 girls were poisoned during the school hours. All the girls have been taken to hospitals for medical treatment. The affected students are in stable condition now. This is the sixth time in a week that school girls have been poisoned by spraying unidentified gas which makes the students feel dizzy.

A huge earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit Afghanistan Monday October 26, 2015. The death toll continues to rise, but it is thought at least 180 people have been killed and more than 800 injured in the devastating quake. Among the dead are 11 students at a girls’ school, who were killed (36 others injured) in a stampede as they tried to get out of the shaking buildings in Afghanistan’s Takhar province. The powerful earthquake also rattled people in Pakistan, India and Tajikistan, killing dozens, collapsing structures and creating panic.

Suspected Taliban fighters stoned a 22-year-old Afghan woman to death after she was accused of adultery we were told Wednesday November 4, 2015. The woman, identified only as Rokhshana, was forced to stand in a deep hole in the ground during the October 24 attack in a village in remote Ghor province of western Afghanistan. In a video showing the killing, about a half-dozen men are seen standing around a deep, narrow pit and pelting the woman with rocks while a larger group of men sit on the ground nearby, watching.

On Wednesday December 16, 2015, Afghanistan has won formal approval to join the World Trade Organisation in a move the U.S.-backed government hopes will help lift its war-shattered economy and create jobs in one of the world's poorest countries. Afghanistan has until June 30 to ratify the agreement, the final step before becoming a full member of the organisation that underpins the global system of international trade.

At least 24 people were killed and 17 others were injured when a passenger bus plunged into a ravine after a head-on collision with a truck in northern Afghanistan we were told Friday December 25, 2015. Women and children were among those killed in the accident Thursday on a major highway in Samangan province. The crash happened when the bus carrying more than 50 passengers was travelling from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif. ---

A medium intensity earthquake on Saturday January 2, 2016, hit Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, ripples of which were felt across North India, including in Jammu & Kashmir and the national capital. The earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, was 170 km deep. There was no report of any loss of life or damage to property till the last reports came in.

Afghan forces have withdrawn from Musa Qala, an opium-growing town in north Helmand, that British forces battled for years to control, raising fears of a wider collapse of resistance in the province. This happened after months of heavy fighting. Afghan officials argued that there was little strategic value in trying to defend it. ---

In a remote corner of eastern Afghanistan the education system has been working well for years now. The situation in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province is particularly striking because the state schools there are controlled by the Taliban with government consent. It has been this way for much of the past decade, with the insurgents exerting control over the curriculum and officials happy to turn a blind eye to their strict interpretation of Islam. In a country where the UN estimates that less than 50 per cent of the population aged 15 and older are literate, the deal between the two warring sides has benefited hundreds of children. Ordinary people and students are happy with both the government and the Taliban. From an education point of view, there are no problems now.

Six persons, including four women, were stabbed to death Wednesday April 6, 2016, in the northern Afghan province of Balkh. The victims were members of the same family and the incident took place in Shir Abad village, Dihdadi District, southwestern of provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif city. The motive behind the incident may has been a family dispute, or a possible 'honor killing' as the initial information found that the culprits were relatives of the victims. Domestic violence against women is still prevalent, particularly in the rural areas, due to tribal customs and patriarchy in the communities in remote villages.

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake has been felt across a number of major cities across south-west Asia Saturday April 9, 2016. The earthquake struck in Afghanistan, close to its border with Tajikistan. The tremor was felt in Kabul, Islamabad, Lahore and Delhi, forcing residents to leave their homes.

More than 100 girls have been poisoned at a school in Afghanistan as officials launch a probe into the mystery contamination. The children were suffering from fever and shivering and admitted to hospital after the incident, which happened at a girls school in the city of Farah, in the western province of the country. ---

Now we are told that sixty students of a girl school were mysteriously poisoned in Rustaq district of northern Afghanistan’s Takhar province on Wednesday April 27, 2016. The grade seven to 12 of Mir Mulai Girl School in Rustaq district were mysteriously poisoned. The affected students had been taken to hospital for medical treatment.

On Friday May 6, 2016, a video has emerged showing the public killing of a woman after her alleged conviction by an informal Taliban court of killing her husband. The video was shot in Jowzjan Province a month or two ago. A crowd listens as the verdict is given before the woman, sitting on the ground in a burqa, is shot in the back of the head.

On Sunday May 8, 2016, two buses and a fuel tanker have collided on a major highway in Afghanistan killing 73 people. More than 50 other people were injured in the accident. All three vehicles were set ablaze after the collision on the main road linking the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar.

On Thursday May 19, 2016, we were told that seven people were killed when a plane belonging to Silk Way Airlines of Azerbaijan crashed in southern Afghanistan. The plane had been carrying nine people when it crashed on take-off from Camp Dwyer on Wednesday. Two survivors were flown to Kandahar Airfield for treatment. The passengers are believed to be eastern European. There was “no military involvement” in the crash; one of the plane’s wings clipped the runway as it was taking off.

Pakistan handed over the contentious Angoor Adda border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Waziristan to Afghan authorities on Saturday May 21, 2016. The “purpose-built” crossing facility, which includes a gate and compound, at Angoor Adda was handed over to the Afghan authorities to “strengthen brotherly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan”. This was done to improve border management.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Thursday My 26, 2016, that security agencies had arrested six Afghan intelligence agents conducting a successful operation in Balochistan. He added that Afghan migrants needed to move back to their country as they had been involved in terror activities including blasts, murders and target-killing. He added that the government would use force to expel Afghan migrants from Pakistan if the global community failed to take initiatives in this matter.

The number of internally displaced Afghans has risen to 1.2 million people, up from 500,000 in 2013, according to Amnesty International. Afghans are one of the world’s largest refugee populations by nationality, with 2.6 million people having left the country. These displaced people lack decent housing, food, water, healthcare and educational opportunities. ---

The illegal mining of some of Afghanistan's most important minerals is funneling millions of dollars into the hands of insurgents and corrupt warlords; the money is fueling the conflict. The mountains of Afghanistan hold as much as $1 trillion to $3 trillion in mineral resources including world-famous lapis lazuli, a deep blue, semi-precious stone that has been mined in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province for thousands of years. In the current circumstances, where 50 percent of the mining revenue is going to the Taliban, and before that it was going to armed groups, by any reasonable definition lapis is a conflict mineral. Since 2014, at least 12,500 tons of lapis worth about $200 million have been extracted, much of it illegally or in a way that avoided nearly $30 million in government taxes we were told Monday June 6, 2016.

Islamic State (ISIS) militants attacked a police compound in eastern Afghanistan early on Saturday June 11, 2016, killing a police chief. Militants attacked the police headquarters in Dih Bala district of Nangarhar province. Five police officers, including the district police chief, were killed and six wounded. At least 13 militants were killed and 7 wounded.

All the five members -a couple and their three children- of an Afghan family died after the roof of their house collapsed in Sar Hawza district in the eastern province of Paktika overnight we were told on Sunday July 17, 2016. The cause of the incident was aging of the muddy house. Such incident is not uncommon in the country as most of the houses and shops in countryside has been built from mud and woods.

On Saturday July 16, 2016, a 20-year-old man and a child were killed and two persons were wounded after a shop’s roof collapsed in Tirin Kot, capital of southern Uruzgan province.

A key commander with the Islamic State militant group has been killed in a military operation in Nangarhar. Saad Emarati was one of the founders of the IS group's Afghanistan-Pakistan branch, and led several attacks against the Taliban and the government. He was one of about 120 suspected militants killed in an operation in Kot district. Emarati was formerly a Taliban commander, but switched allegiance to IS following the death of Mullah Omar, the Taliban founder. He was one of the most important leaders of IS in the region, and that his death, if confirmed, would be a serious setback to the group's ability to operate in eastern Afghanistan.

A passenger bus and fuel tanker have collided in southern Afghanistan, leaving at least 36 people dead. The bus was travelling from Kandahar to Kabul when the accident took place in the Jildak area of Zabul province. Many of the dead, including women and children, were charred beyond recognition in the inferno. At least 25 people were also injured. Afghanistan has a bad traffic accident record, with many poorly maintained roads and vehicles. The drivers of both vehicles have been accused of recklessness. ---

Afghan authorities on Sunday October 16, 2016, burned around five tons of heroin, hashish, drug-making chemicals and alcohol in a show of their commitment to curbing drug trafficking. Piles of drugs as well as some 100 bottles of alcohol were set alight outside the western city of Herat. One ton of heroin, sold gram by gram, is worth 40 million euros when it reaches European markets.
 
On Thursday morning December 15, 2016, a flight carrying 34 rejected asylum seekers arrived in the Afghan capital, Kabul. They were the first people to leave Germany in a highly contested programme of "collective deportations" to the war-torn country. Awaiting the men were Afghan police officers and refugee ministries officials, as well as representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The mood was somber among the deported men. Some were sad, others were angry. Babur Sedik said that he had spent four years in Germany and had never made it out of a refugee camp.

Afghanistan Monday January 23, 2017:

• The roof of a shoddily constructed house in a refugee camp in eastern Afghanistan collapsed as a family was sleeping inside, killing 6 family members, including two women and two children. Four other members of the family were injured in the incident.

Avalanches and freezing weather have killed more than 20 people we were told Saturday February 4, 2017; rescuers worked to save scores still trapped under the snow. The avalanches, which followed three days of heavy snow, destroyed homes and blocked roads in central and northeastern provinces.

Afghanistan Sunday February 5, 2017:

• A string of avalanches and snowstorms has killed scores of people in the past two days, blocking key roads across the country and canceling all flights at Kabul’s airport.
• About 50 people lost their lives to avalanches in the rugged and remote province of Nurestan in one village.
• There were reports of deaths in Parwan, to the north of Kabul; Badakhshan in the northeast; and several other parts of the country. The total number of dead is about 100.

Afganistan Wednesday February 8, 2017:

• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended operations in Afghanistan after gunmen killed six employees helping deliver emergency relief to a remote northern region hit by heavy snow storms.
• The aid convoy was attacked by suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gunmen. The head of the ICRC called the incident the “worst attack against us” in 20 years, but the charity said it did not know who was responsible.
• A search operation was under way to find two charity workers who were still missing.

Afghanistan Saturday February 11, 2017:

• At least six people were killed when a Taliban bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into Afghan soldiers who had queued outside a bank in southern Helmand province to collect their salaries.
• Nearly two dozen others, including women and children, were wounded in the explosion in the capital Lashkar Gah, many of them critically.
• The Taliban, who control vast swathes of the opium-ravaged province and have repeatedly threatened to seize Lashkar Gah, claimed responsibility for the bombing, calling it revenge for recent US air strikes in the district of Sangin.
• At least 60 Taliban insurgents have been killed in a series of air strikes in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The insurgents were planning to launch a major attack on Sanging district.
• Hundreds of fighters were called from the other provinces and districts by the Taliban after one their largest attack on Sangin was repulsed nearly two weeks ago. ---

Afghanistan Tuesday February 14, 2017:

• A young couple eloped and was later killed by an angry mob. The woman was said to have been married to someone else against her will, and eloped with her lover.
• Police caught the couple and held them on suspicion of adultery, and the mob descended on the police station within hours, eventually dragging the couple away and killing them as well as injuring three police officers, one seriously, in the process.
• The 250 to 300-person mob was said to have been made up mostly of the woman's legal husband's family, but it also reportedly included her own brothers and cousins.

Afghanistan Wednesday February 22, 2017:

• A bomb has killed three civilians and wounded 19 in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province.
• The attack took place when a parked motorcycle, loaded with explosives, was detonated by remote control at a market in Janikhel district. A woman was among those killed.
• Separately, Afghan security forces have killed 12 militants of the Islamic State group, including a key commander, in eastern Nangarhar province in the past 24 hours.

Afghanistan Friday February 24, 2017:

• A suicide car bomb has killed at least two soldiers and wounded three others in southern Helmand province. The car exploded at a police security post in the district of Girishk. ---

Afghanistan Thursday May 10, 2018:

• Insurgents have killed at least 86 people lining up to enroll to vote during a registration drive.
• Afghanistan's government launched a nationwide drive last month to issue identification cards to more than 14 million adults, to pave the way for long-delayed parliamentary and provincial council elections in October.
• The insurgents had abducted 26 people during election-related attacks. One hundred eighty-five people were wounded.
• The deadliest attack on the election took place last month, when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a crowd lined up outside a voter registration center in Kabul, killing 60 people.

Afghanistan Tuesday May 15, 2018:

• Flash floods caused by heavy rain in the past week have killed at least 34 people in several Afghan provinces and caused serious damage to property and livestock.
• The flooding, hitting provinces mainly in the north and center of the country, had caused serious damage to around 900 houses, killed hundreds of cattle and damaged agricultural land.

Afghanistan Saturday June 9, 2018:

• The Taliban has announced a three-day ceasefire over the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of this week, following a ceasefire announced by the government.
• The armed group said that the ceasefire would exclude foreign forces, and that it would defend itself against any attack.
• Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced an unconditional ceasefire with the Taliban until June 20, coinciding with the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. However fighting against other armed groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) will continue.

Afghanistan Saturday June 16, 2018:

• Afghanistan has extended its unilateral ceasefire with the Taliban following an initial truce observed by both sides over the Eid festival period. President Ashraf Ghani appealed to the militants to follow the government's lead and enter peace talks. In extraordinary scenes, militants have been embracing security force members and taking selfies with citizens.
• However 25 people died in a suicide attack on one gathering of Taliban and government officials in Nangarhar. Taliban members and local residents were among the victims of the attack; 54 people were wounded.

Afghanistan Wednesday September 5, 2018:

• An Afghan insurgent leader whom America sponsored for years as “goodness personified” and who then fought for decades as one of its most feared enemies has died.
• Jalaluddin Haqqani’s death is unlikely to have much military impact, as he ceded control of his eponymous Haqqani network to his son years ago, but it marks a symbolic generational shift. Haqqani was a key military leader for four decades of Afghanistan’s civil war, switching allies and backers but never putting down his weapons.
• He first took up arms against Moscow with US support, then befriended Osama bin Laden and embraced the Taliban and finally came full circle to lead some of the most brutal attacks against American troops and the Afghan government they backed. He was accused of introducing suicide bombing to Afghanistan, a tactic responsible for thousands of deaths. Haqqani network is considered most ruthless branch of Afghan insurgency 
• Haqqani was born in the south-eastern part of Afghanistan. His father owned land and ran businesses on both sides of the border with Pakistan, connections that would help make Haqqani a key player in the wars to come.
• His military career began in earnest when Soviet forces overthrew the Afghan government in 1979 and Haqqani became a leader of resistance fighters based in Pakistan. He was a key figure in the cold war showdown that played out through the 1980s in Afghanistan, funded and feted by Washington and described by Charlie Wilson, a congressman at the time, as “goodness personified”.
• Twin bombings at a sports club in Kabul killed at least 20 people, including two journalists, and wounded 70 others.
• Samim Faramarz, 28, and Ramiz Ahmadi, 23, were described as "two of the best Afghan journalists, young, fearless and thoughtful. ---

Afghanistan Friday September 21, 2018:

• At least 15 people, including three women and two children, were killed when a bus hit a truck on Afghanistan's Highway 1, the ring-road highway that links the city of Herat to Kabul.
• At least 30 other people were injured by the accident in the Pozak area of the Bakwa District in the western province of Farah.
• The bus was traveling to Kandahar from Herat Province when the accident happened. The bus driver was driving too fast at the time of the accident. Underdeveloped highways, reckless driving, and poorly maintained vehicles are blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people every year on Afghanistan's roads.

Afghanistan Saturday October 6, 2018:

• This weekend marks the 17th anniversary of the US coalition’s invasion of Afghanistan, triggering a war that has lasted four times as long as the First World War.
• Some 3,546 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, 456 of whom were British, while a conservative estimate suggests 217,000 Afghans have died as a direct result of the fighting.
• During each of the past 17 years, Afghanistan has continued its descent into poverty, violence, environmental degradation and instability. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, and one of the most dangerous.
• Donald Trump has increased US bombing and, therefore, civilian casualties have risen too. Fatality rates in early 2018 as being “the bloodiest on record”, at an average rate of 28 Afghan civilian casualties per day.

Afghanistan Thursday October 25, 2018:

• Two guards of the prosecutor general's office were wounded when a magnetic mine, attached to a security vehicle by unidentified militants, detonated in the Mirwais Khargoti area in Bagrami district in Kabul province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Afghanistan Monday October 29, 2018

• A suicide bomber blew himself up near a vehicle as it entered the head office of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission wounding at least six people.

Afghanistan Tuesday October 30, 2018:

• A suicide bomber struck an election rally in eastern Nangarhar province killing at least 13 people and wounding around 40.
• The attack, the first since campaigning began last week ahead of elections for the lower house of parliament, underscored the widespread violence gripping the country 17 years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban.
• The vote is scheduled for October 20 but it’s unclear if the balloting will go ahead in areas controlled by the Taliban, who have seized several districts across the country in recent years and who carry out near-daily attacks.
• The attack targeted a rally for Abdul Naser Mohmand, an independent candidate, who was unharmed.
• Most of the people killed or wounded are elders who had gathered for the campaign rally and some of the wounded were in critical condition, indicating the death toll could rise.
• No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and a Daesh affiliate are active in the province and opposed to elections.

Afghanistan Wednesday October 31, 2018:

• An Afghan army helicopter crashed in bad weather in the western Farah province, killing all 25 people on board, including the deputy corps commander of the western zone.
• The helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the mountainous Anar Dara district heading toward the nearby Herat province.
• On board were the corps commander, General Naimudullah Khalil, and two members of the Farah provincial council, its chairman, Farid Bakhtawar, and Jamila Amini, one of only two women on the nine-member council.
• This was the second army helicopter crash in as many months in Farah. In September, five crew members died when their helicopter crashed.
• A suicide bomber targeting a bus carrying employees of Afghanistan's biggest prison killed at least seven people. Another five were wounded in the blast near the facility in Kabul; the blast had hit a vehicle that staff of Pul-e-Charkhi prison were travelling in.
• The attacker was on foot. He struck as the bus was entering the jail in the east of the Afghan capital.

Afghanistan Monday November 5, 2018:

• The number of civilians harmed in last month's parliamentary elections was higher than in four previous elections.
• At least 435 civilian casualties were recorded, out of which 56 people were killed and 379 wounded, on Election Day on October 20, and during days when delayed polling was conducted in some provinces.
• The numbers do not include casualties from attacks during the three-week election campaign.
• The Taliban, Afghanistan's largest armed group that was toppled from power by US-led invasion in 2001, issued a series of threats against the election and called on Afghans to boycott the process. ---

Afghanistan Sunday January 6, 2019:

• At least 30 people have been killed in the collapse of a gold mine in north-eastern Afghanistan in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province. At least seven other people were injured.
• Villagers had reportedly dug a 60m (220ft) deep but makeshift shaft in a river bed to hunt for gold and were caught in its collapse.
• Afghanistan has vast resources of minerals but many of the mines are old and poorly maintained, creating severe safety issues. Villagers were reportedly using an excavator at the site when the mine collapsed.
• Locals rushed to the scene and managed to rescue only 13 workers. Dozens of others, including some children, died.

Afghanistan Sunday March 3, 2019:

• At least 32 people have been killed in flash floods.
• Six people were killed in Helmand's Nawa district and six others in Lashkar Gah. Eight others were injured. The flash floods caused by heavy rains also damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
• Flash floods in neighboring Kandahar Province left 20 people dead and some 2,000 houses destroyed. At least 10 people from five districts were still missing, OCHA said.
• Afghanistan has seen an increased amount of snow and rain across the country in the past several days.

Afghanistan Saturday March 30, 2019:

• Flash floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 35 people washing away houses and cutting off access to remote villages across parts of the country.
• Heavy flooding that started early on Friday killed at least 12 people in the northern province of Faryab and 10 people in the western province of Herat.  
• Eight people were killed in Badghis province in the west and five in Balkh province in the north; more than 3,000 houses had been destroyed. In Herat, 10 districts and some parts of Herat city were impacted. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed and thousands displaced. Access to some areas had been cut off, preventing teams from reaching affected people.

Afghanistan Friday April 5, 2019:

• Taliban fighters stormed an Afghan government compound in Badghis, killing at least 32 soldiers and policemen in 48 hours.
• A massive Taliban siege of a government compound and army base in western Badghis province, now in its second day, has killed at least 12 more troops.
• Friday's fatalities bring the overall casualty toll for the assault in the district of Bala Murghab to at least 32. Many more have been wounded and the area is cut off.
• According to soldiers inside the base, roughly 2,000 Taliban fighters are involved in the attack. There are about 600 Afghan troops and members of the security forces inside and they are running out of ammunition, water and food.
• The locals are disappointed that NATO forces and the Afghan government have not helped, an assertion the defence ministry disputes.
• By Thursday the Taliban had killed 36 members of the government forces and captured several security checkpoints in attacks that began on Wednesday night. More than 30 Taliban fighters were also killed.
• Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group attacked from four directions, capturing five checkpoints. Afghanistan's defence ministry, said its forces chose to "tactically retreat" from the checkpoints to prevent civilian casualties.
• The ministry said it called in multiple air attacks on Taliban positions and had airlifted reinforcements and supplies to Badghis.
• On Friday the defence ministry said Afghan forces had forced the Taliban to retreat from some checkpoints and that all key areas remained under its control. ---

Afghanistan Saturday May 25, 2019:

• At least 24 people have been killed and 11 others injured in the past month as a new wave of heavy rains and flooding has swept parts of the country. Flooding has affected six of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, including the capital, Kabul. Around 500 people were rescued in central Bamyan province’s Sheber district.
• Nationwide, floods have destroyed more than 220 homes this month and partially damaged 116 more.
• Heavy snowfall across Afghanistan this winter had cut off many areas. So far this year, around 150 people have died as heavy rains and flooding swept away homes in different provinces.

Afghanistan Wednesday October 9, 2019:

• US air strikes on alleged Taliban drug labs in western Afghanistan killed at least 30 civilians, including children. The UN said it had credible reports of a further 30 deaths in the May strikes but had not verified them.
• The US said it had targeted Taliban-run methamphetamine labs which helped fund the militant group. But according to the UN, drug labs and associated workers cannot lawfully be designated as targets.
• US forces hit more than 60 alleged drug production sites in Farah Province and neighbouring Nimroz Province in the strikes on 5 May.
• A UN delegation that visited the site of the attacks and conducted face-to-face interviews with residents concluded that there were 39 verified casualties - including 14 children - of whom 30 died. The UN said it had also found credible evidence of at least 30 more deaths, the majority of whom it said were women and children.
• According to the UN report, the sites were not exclusively run by Taliban but also by ordinary criminal networks as well - making them illegitimate targets for military strikes.

Afghanistan Tuesday October 15, 2019:

-     Violence linked to Afghanistan’s election last month left 85 civilians dead and more than 370 wounded. The bulk of the casualties were caused by Taliban fighters, who attacked several polling stations in an attempt to derail the vote.
-     Only a quarter of eligible voters cast their ballots in Afghanistan’s presidential election on Sept. 28 following threats of violence by the Islamist group.
-     Deliberate acts of violence against voters, election workers, campaigners, election rally sites and polling centres are completely unacceptable.
-     More than a third of civilian casualties were children. Twenty-eight people were killed and almost 250 injured on election day, with the rest of the casualties caused by violence before or after the vote.
-     The Taliban, who consider the election illegitimate and had warned people not to take part, were not immediately available for comment.

Afghanistan Thursday October 24, 2019:

• The provincial police chief of the western Badghis province was shot and killed while visiting in western side of Kabul, in a latest string of targeted attack.

Afghanistan Wednesday November 13, 2019:

• An early morning car bombing killed at least 12 people in Kabul. The incident took place in the 15th district killing 12 civilians and wounding 20 others, including four foreigners. The site of the attack is close to the heavily guarded ministry compound.
• Elsewhere in the country, intense clashes between the government forces and Taliban insurgents are being reported amid various initiatives to reinvigorate peace talks in different world capitals.
• According to Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the past six months were the deadliest months for civilians in Afghanistan with casualties of 6,487 civilians, including women and children (1,611 killed and 4876 injured) during the armed conflict in the country.

Afghanistan Friday November 29, 2019:

• President Donald Trump has made his first trip to Afghanistan during a surprise Thanksgiving visit where he announced peace talks with the Taliban have restarted.
• He spent about two-and-a-half hours on the ground at Bagram Airfield where he thanked US troops, served them turkey and sat down for a meal, as well as meeting President Ashraf Ghani.
• Mr Trump said he believed the militants wanted an agreement. The US commander-in-chief told about 500 troops in a dining hall: "The Taliban wants to make a deal. We'll see if they want to make a deal. It's got to be a real deal. But we'll see, but they want to make a deal. "And they only want to make a deal because you're doing a great job. That's the only reason they want to make a deal." ---

Afghanistan Wednesday May 30, 2018:

• The Taliban launched an attack on the interior ministry in Kabul, demonstrating their ability to carry out strikes in the capital.
• They also said they carried out another attack on a police station, in the capital of Logar province.

Afghanistan Thursday May 31, 2018:

• The Taliban have held secret meetings with Afghan officials to discuss a ceasefire. The talks also involved foreign governments and international organisations. However, the Taliban has rejected this as a "false claim". The Taliban have generally refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, insisting instead on discussions with the US. (---)

Afghanistan Sunday January 26, 2020:

• The Pentagon was investigating a plane crash in Afghanistan after unconfirmed pictures from the site appeared to show wreckage from a US Air Force communications aircraft. The still unidentified plane had crashed in Taliban-held territory in Ghazni province, south west of the capital, Kabul.
• Unconfirmed pictures purporting to come from the site showed burnt wreckage emblazoned with USAF markings crashed in snowy land. Aviation experts told the Telegraph the wreckage appeared to come from a Bombardier E11 BACN plane which helps provide military communications to troops on the ground. The aircraft is known to operate from Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan.
• Afghan officials had at first reported the crashed plane belonged to the national carrier, Ariana.
• The plane crashed in Deh Yak district of Ghazni province. The plane is on fire and the villagers are trying to put it out. One does not know if it is a military or commercial plane.

 

Afghanistan Monday March 9, 2020:

• Blasts have been reported in Kabul as Afghanistan’s two leading presidential candidates held separate swearing-in ceremonies after both claimed to have won last year’s elections.
• The incumbent Ashraf Ghani took his oath of office at the country’s presidential palace in Kabul in a ceremony attended by foreign diplomats including the US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
• At about the same time, Ghani’s rival Abdullah Abdullah was holding his own inauguration ceremony despite negotiations late into the night on Sunday in an attempt to find a compromise between the rivals. Television stations in the country broadcast the two ceremonies side by side.
• A spokesman for the president’s office said nobody was hurt in the explosions. It was not immediately clear where they had taken place. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

 

Afghanistan Friday May 8, 2020:

• Afghanistan has recovered 18 bodies of migrants who were allegedly beaten and tortured before being forced into a river by Iranian border guards last week.
• Afghan authorities are investigating claims the migrants drowned while illegally crossing into neighbouring Iran from the western Herat province.

 

Afghanistan Friday May 8, 2020:

• At least six people were killed when protesters angry at the distribution of food aid clashed with security forces in western Afghanistan. The violence began after demonstrators gathered in Firozkoh, the capital of Ghor province, to complain about the perceived failure to help the poor during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Gunmen in the crowd attacked a government office, prompting security forces to open fire. Two policemen and four civilians died.
• Local volunteer radio presenter Ahmadkhan Nawid was among those killed. Nine civilians and ten police officers were also injured.
• The human rights group Amnesty International called for an independent and effective investigation into what it said was the "use of unnecessary and excessive force" that led to the killing of the civilians.

 

Afghanistan Saturday May 16, 2020:

• Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah have signed a power-sharing deal, ending months of political uncertainty.
• Mr Ghani will stay on as president while both men will choose an equal number of ministers.
• Dr Abdullah will lead peace talks with the Taliban, should they get under way.
• It is hoped the deal in the capital Kabul will help to maintain the balance of power that existed before last year's disputed presidential election. Mr Ghani and Dr Abdullah - who both claimed victory in last September's election - last month held rival inauguration ceremonies.
• The Afghan electoral commission says incumbent Ashraf Ghani narrowly won the vote, but Mr Abdullah has alleged the result is fraudulent.

 

Afghanistan Friday April 29, 2020

• Two children died after a bomb exploded on a motorcycle in the southern city of Kandahar; the blast also injured five civilians.
• A landmine blast in the northern Kunduz province killed at least seven farm laborers. The incident took place in the Jungle Bashi area of Khan Abad district last evening where an improvised explosive device planted by the Taliban hit a convoy of farm laborers.
• There were 13 laborers in total who were coming back from work in the wheat fields when their motorcycle-rickshaw hit the landmine. Seven of them were killed and six injured.
• There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.Afghanistan

 

Afghanistan Tuesday June 9, 2020:

• All 20 miners trapped in a coal mine that collapsed in the northern Samangan province have died. The workers were stuck inside the mine after a gas explosion at around noon sealed off the access tunnel.
• Eight bodies have been retrieved and efforts are underway to find and take out the remaining 12 victims.
• The tragedy raises questions over safety measures at mining operations in Afghanistan, where illegal mining remains rampant in many remote areas. No rescue team had reached the site hours after the blast, with locals trying to help the trapped miners on their own.
• According to the US Geological Survey, Afghanistan has reserves of oil, gas, lithium, and other rare metals and minerals worth trillions of dollars, most of which remain untapped due to the country’s volatile security situation.

 

Afghanistan Sunday June 21, 2020:

• The Taliban and Afghan forces have both deliberately attacked health workers in recent months, even as medics are trying to cope with the coronavirus sweeping through Afghanistan.
• Afghanistan's shaky health system is at risk of buckling under the weight of Covid-19 infections, but those fighting in the nation's long-running conflicts have failed to halt attacks on staff and facilities.
• A United Nations report alleged a dozen deliberate attacks since mid-March, with eight carried out by Taliban insurgents and three carried out by government forces. The culprits behind the most horrifying attack, where gunmen went ward-to-ward executing mothers, infants and nurses in a Kabul maternity hospital, are still not known.
• "At a time when an urgent humanitarian response was required to protect every life in Afghanistan, both the Taliban and Afghan national security forces carried out deliberate acts of violence that undermined healthcare operations," said Deborah Lyons head of the UN mission in Afghanistan.

 

Afghanistan Monday June 29, 2020:

• At least 23 civilians were killed when a series of explosions went off in a cattle market in the southern province of Helmand, in what was one of the bloodiest incidents against civilians in recent months.
• Afghan security forces and the Taliban blamed each other for the attack in Sangin district, an area under the insurgents’ control.
• While the Taliban accused government troops of firing mortars that killed civilians, the army blamed the Taliban for blowing up explosives at the site. Some residents confirmed the Taliban account, alleging the attack was carried out by the army.
• Videos circulating on social media showed that the casualties included children.