Latest Taliban News

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 file photo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives to attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia. Russia's top diplomat has on Friday, July 10 dismissed U.S. intelligence information alleging that Moscow has offered bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. political infighting. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Russia's foreign minister mocks intel on bounties to Taliban

Jul. 10, 2020 2:20 PM EDT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat on Friday dismissed U.S. intelligence information alleging that Moscow offered bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers as a product of election year politics in Washington. U.S. intelligence officials said information about Russia's alleged bounties...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, left, listens as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, July 9, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)

Pentagon: US will respond if Russia bounty reports are true

Jul. 9, 2020 5:18 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Pentagon leaders told Congress on Thursday that reports of Russia offering Taliban militants bounties for killing Americans were not corroborated by defense intelligence agencies, but said they are looking into it and the U.S. will respond if necessary. Defense Secretary Mark Esper...

Editorial Roundup: US

Jul. 8, 2020 3:57 PM EDT

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ July 7 The Washington Post on a new U.S. guideline forcing international students to leave the country or transfer to another college if their schools only offer online classes this fall: The Trump administration has used the novel coronavirus...

Suicide attack, roadside bomb kill 6 police in Afghanistan

Jul. 8, 2020 4:35 AM EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide truck bomber targeted a police district headquarters in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, killing three officers, a local official said. Three other police officers, including a district police chief, were killed in a roadside bombing in eastern...

FILE - In this April 9, 2019, file photo, Afghans watch a civilian vehicle burnt after being shot by U.S. forces following an attack near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Three American service members and a U.S. contractor were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb on Monday near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the U.S. forces said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Intelligence alleging that Afghan militants might have accepted Russian bounties for killing American troops didn’t scuttle the U.S.-Taliban agreement or President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw thousands more troops from the war. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

US general skeptical that bounties led to troops' deaths

Jul. 7, 2020 3:06 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. general for the Middle East said Tuesday that the intelligence suggesting that Russia may have paid Taliban militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan was worrisome, but he is not convinced that any bounties resulted in U.S. military deaths. Gen. Frank McKenzie, the...

Suicide bombing, attack in Afghanistan kill 7 policemen

Jul. 7, 2020 8:36 AM EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber targeted an Afghan police convoy in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday morning, killing four officers, including a police commander, a local official said. Three other officers were killed in an attack in the country's south. The suicide bombing, which...

FILE - In this April 9, 2019, file photo, Afghans watch a civilian vehicle burnt after being shot by U.S. forces following an attack near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Three American service members and a U.S. contractor were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb on Monday near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the U.S. forces said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Intelligence alleging that Afghan militants might have accepted Russian bounties for killing American troops didn’t scuttle the U.S.-Taliban agreement or President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw thousands more troops from the war. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

Critics of US-Taliban deal say militants can't be trusted

Jul. 4, 2020 10:00 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Intelligence that Afghan militants might have accepted Russian bounties for killing American troops did not scuttle the U.S.-Taliban agreement or President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw thousands more troops from the war. It did give critics of the deal another reason to say the...

FILE - In this March 9, 2020 file photo, Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, attends Ashraf Ghani's inauguration ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to a statement released Thursday, July 2, 2020, by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Khalilzad told Pakistani officials that Afghanistan’s Taliban and Kabul’s political leaders were close to starting negotiations to decide the face of a post-war Afghanistan, a crucial next step in a U.S. deal signed with the Taliban in February. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

US envoy forges ahead with troubled Taliban peace deal

Jul. 4, 2020 9:20 AM EDT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Washington's envoy to Afghanistan on Saturday emphasized the economic benefits of the peace deal with the Taliban, forging ahead with an agreement that has run into new political obstacles in the U.S. and the region. Zalmay Khalilzad was wrapping up a week-long trip that included stops in...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Thursday, July 2, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Democrats say troop threats should be pursued 'relentlessly'

Jul. 2, 2020 6:26 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two top Democrats in Congress said Thursday that any threats to U.S. troops must be pursued “relentlessly,” rebuking President Donald Trump after receiving a highly classified briefing about intelligence that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in...

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2009, file, photo, A soldier from the U.S. Army's 118th Military Police Co., based at Fort Bragg, N.C., respond to shots fired at a combat outpost in the Jalrez Valley in Afghanistan's Wardak Province. Moscow and Washington are intertwined in a complex and bloody history in Afghanistan, with both suffering thousands of dead and wounded in conflicts lasting for years. Now both superpowers are linked again over Afghanistan, with intelligence reports indicating Russia secretly offered bounties to the Taliban to kill American troops there. But analysts suggest that the two adversaries actually have more in common, especially when it comes to what they want to see in a postwar Afghanistan: a stable country that does not serve as a base for extremists to export terrorism. Both countries also are aligned in their opposition to militants from the Islamic State group.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

US, Russia share a complex and bloody history in Afghanistan

Jul. 2, 2020 2:49 PM EDT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Moscow and Washington are intertwined in a complex and bloody history in Afghanistan, with both suffering thousands of dead and wounded in conflicts lasting for years. Now both superpowers are linked again over Afghanistan, with intelligence reports indicating Russia secretly offered...

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