Latest Afghanistan News

Airstrikes target suspected Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan

Dec. 24, 2024 14:59 PM EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan in rare airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan on Tuesday, dismantling a training facility and killing some insurgents, four security officials said. The strikes were carried out in...

Afghanistan welcomes Saudi Arabia’s decision to reopen embassy in Kabul

Dec. 23, 2024 09:19 AM EST

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry on Monday welcomed the reopening of Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Kabul for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. On Sunday, the Saudi Embassy in Kabul said on X that it was resuming the mission’s activities “based on the...

Greek authorities say boat capsizing victims and survivors were from Afghanistan. 2 Turks arrested

Dec. 21, 2024 16:00 PM EST

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's coast guard said Saturday it was searching for survivors or victims of a speedboat capsizing a day earlier involving migrants off the eastern Greek island of Rhodes. The capsizing, the result of the boat’s maneuvering to evade a patrol vessel...

Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for a deadly military checkpoint attack in the northwest

Dec. 21, 2024 10:34 AM EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a deadly military checkpoint attack in the country’s northwest. The militant group said it killed 35 soldiers and injured 15 others in an early morning raid. It also claimed seizing equipment...

Pakistan postpones polio vaccination drive in Balochistan after health workers boycotted it

Dec. 18, 2024 13:28 PM EST

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities on Wednesday postponed a polio vaccination campaign in the country's restive southern Balochistan province after health workers boycotted it to oppose a proposed privatization of hospitals. Authorities on Monday launched the final...

Russian lawmakers approve a bill that could remove the terrorist designation for the Taliban

Dec. 17, 2024 09:50 AM EST

MOSCOW (AP) — The lower house of Russia's parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that would set the stage for Moscow to remove the designation of the Taliban in Afghanistan as a terrorist group. Under the bill passed by the State Duma in the second and third readings, the official...

Militants attack police post in northwest Pakistan, killing 2 officers and wounding 3

Dec. 17, 2024 00:34 AM EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants on a motorcycle opened fire Tuesday at a police post in restive northwest Pakistan, killing at least two officers and wounding three others before fleeing the scene, officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in...

UN Security Council criticizes Taliban ban on Afghan women's medical education

Dec. 13, 2024 15:46 PM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council said Friday it was deeply concerned about the recent decision by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to ban women from medical education, which could leave millions of women and girls without health care in the future. The council...

Thousands attend the funeral of a Taliban minister killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber

Dec. 12, 2024 11:04 AM EST

GARDA SERAI, Afghanistan (AP) — Thousands of people attended the funeral on Thursday of a Taliban minister killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the day before that was claimed by the Islamic State group. The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for...

Blinken faces GOP critics in Congress who say Afghanistan withdrawal 'lit the world on fire'

Dec. 11, 2024 14:51 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under fire from congressional Republicans about one of the darkest moments of Joe Biden’s presidency, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the administration’s handling of the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying Democrats struggled to make the best of a...