Above Photo: Nazim Shah/Twitter The bilateral talks took place for the first time after the Taliban came to power in mid-August. Following the meeting, the US has reportedly agreed to provide “humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan US and Taliban delegations met in Qatar’s capital Doha on October 9-10, the first such meeting since the political developments of August when the latter took over the country. Following the meeting, the US has reportedly agreed to provide “humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan. However, the foreign ministry in Afghanistan said that such assistance “should not be linked to political issues.” The delegates included officials from the US […]
Taliban
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KABUL (Sputnik) – The United States’ move to resume “excessive” airstrikes in Afghanistan amid clashes in the southern province of Helmand presents a grave violation of the Doha agreement, the Taliban said on Sunday. “According to the Doha agreement, the American forces are prohibited from carrying out airstrikes or targeting anyone in areas other than combat zones or during active fighting. However, over the past few days, drone and other fighter aircrafts have carried out attacks during day and night times in Nahr Siraj, Khushkawa, Babaji, Malgir and Band-e-Barq areas of Greshk and various areas of Sangin, Marjah, Nawa and Nad […]
Afghans flee to Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital, during fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces on Monday. Local authorities estimate that some 35,000 people have been displaced into Lashkar Gah since a Taliban offensive began in Helmand. AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption AFP via Getty Images Afghans flee to Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital, during fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces on Monday. Local authorities estimate that some 35,000 people have been displaced into Lashkar Gah since a Taliban offensive began in Helmand. AFP via Getty Images As the Taliban launched an offensive over the weekend […]
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has rubbished the CBS News interpretation of his words. The network provoked uproar claiming that the militant group wants Trump to win the election and withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The “clarification” from the Taliban spokesman came hours after a report that the militant group threw its weight behind Trump set Twitter alight, with the president’s detractors seizing upon the unusual endorsement to tear into the Trump administration. “US news outlet @CBSNews has interpreted & published my remarks incorrectly. Nothing of the sort has been communicated as publicized by them,” Mujahid tweeted. In its report on Saturday, CBS […]
Zachary Leeman is a US-based journalist and author of the novel Nigh. A Taliban spokesman has said they hope Donald Trump wins November’s election, giving his critics plenty of ammo to attack him with. What some of them likely don’t realize they’re doing, though, is arguing for more war. “We hope he will win the election and wind up US military presence in Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News in an interview highlighting the unusual support. Mujahid said Trump’s “America first” policy breaks with past administrations’ need to be “cops for the world.” The Taliban was even concerned about Trump’s […]
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wanted to have US troops in Afghanistan home by Christmas, after 19 years of combat in the Middle East. The assertion reportedly caught many military and civil officials by surprise and is seen by some Democrats as a way for Trump to gain additional points prior to the 3 November election. Leaders of the Afghan militant group, the Taliban, said on Saturday that they hoped US President Donald Trump would beat Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in the US general election in November. “We hope he will win the election and wind up [the] US […]
After two months of digging for evidence that Russia’s government paid bounties to Taliban forces to kill American forces in Afghanistan, as reported by the New York Times, the US military has found no corroboration. “It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me,” General Frank McKenzie, the commander who oversees US troops in Afghanistan, reportedly told NBC News on Monday. Investigators continue to look into the matter, he said. The investigation already has reviewed intelligence concerning every attack on US troops in Afghanistan in the past several years, and none has been tied to Russian […]
DOHA (Sputnik) – Intra-Afghan negotiations to reach peace between the Kabul administration and the Taliban movement started in Qatar’s Doha on Saturday, a Sputnik correspondent reported. Both sides have sent delegations of more than 20 people to participate in talks. Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, who leads the government’s delegation, has said that the country intends to end the decades-long war and reach “an agreement on long-lasting peace”. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the sides to strike the deal, adding that the country should protect the rights of all Afghans. “We will […]
Since being overthrown in 2001 after the invasion of US forces, the Taliban have refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, choosing instead to hold talks with representatives from Washington. A landmark peace deal signed between the militant organization and the United States on 29 February set the stage for intra-Afghan talks, although the staging of negotiations would rest on both sides complying with a prisoner exchange agreement. Sources in the Afghan presidential administration told Sputnik on Thursday that both parties had agreed to begin talks on Saturday. This was later confirmed by the Qatari Foreign Ministry and officials from the […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo-itemprop.png Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202009111080425370-taliban-militants-attack-afghan-forces-in-nangarhar-province-at-least-16-killed-source-claims/ On Thursday, the Taliban confirmed that the opening ceremony of intra-Afghan peace talks will begin on Saturday, following a peace greement between the Taliban and the United States Taliban militants attacked the security forces of Afghanistan in eastern province of Nangarhar, leaving at least 16 soldiers killed and more injured, a local source told Sputnik on Friday. The militants targeted checkpoints of the Afghan army and police in the Gandumak area of Nangarhar’s Khogyani district, the source continued. The described attack comes amid the approaching first round of intra-Afghan peace talks between the Taliban […]
Afghanistan has released the first 80 of its 400 remaining Taliban prisoners as part of a peace deal with the US, which is contingent on the US also withdrawing all its troops from the country. However, the US “deep state” may be trying to sabotage the deal, Mark Sleboda, a Moscow-based international relations and security analyst, told Sputnik. “We have to remember that the US-installed Afghan government never agreed to these withdrawal talks that the US had with the Taliban,” Sleboda told Political Misfits hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber on Tuesday. “They never agreed to the prisoner release … and […]
Afghanistan’s capital has been hit by multiple rockets in an attack that appears to have targeted the main diplomatic district which houses embassies. At least 10 people have been injured in the attack, local media reported. “Several rockets were fired from two vehicles,” Ministry of Interior spokesman Tariq Arian said on Tuesday, as cited by Reuters. Photographs and videos show plumes of black smoke rising from the district as large booms can be heard in the distance. Workers in embassies were rushed to safe rooms during the barrage. One of the rockets landed inside the Presidential Palace, according to unconfirmed local media […]
Last week, the president said he would be “very angry” if the information published in the US media about alleged Russian payments to Taliban militants for the killing of American troops was proven to be true. Previously, Russian and US officials and even the Afghan militants themselves had all dismissed the allegations. US President Donald Trump has reiterated that has not seen any evidence to suggest that the ‘Russian bounties’ allegations are true, and indicated that they may have been fabricated by Democratic adversaries like California Congressman Adam Schiff to attack his administration. “I think it’s another Russia hoax. They’ve been […]
The U.S. State Department has issued warnings to Russia that there will be repercussions if Moscow pays bounties to the Taliban for successfully killing American soldiers, according to two senior American officials and another individual with knowledge of the matter. The warnings were issued through the department’s diplomatic channels after public news reports in June that the U.S. had gathered intelligence about the Russian bounties, those officials said. One official described the communications as “serious.” Another said that Moscow responded by denying the reports it had set up or funded a bounty program to kill U.S. troops. These secret warnings stand […]
The Taliban has said it is ready for talks with Afghanistan’s political leadership after the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Adha at the end of July. The movement also offered to hand over the last of the government prisoners in a week’s time, providing the government frees the last of its Taliban prisoners, AP reports. The offer was made by the Taliban’s political spokesman Suhail Shaheen in a tweet published late on Thursday. The group earlier appointed the son of the movement’s founder to head its military wing and designated powerful leadership council members to its negotiation team. On Friday, the High […]
A Taliban official has dismissed as fake and a byproduct of US political infighting the sensational New York Times report claiming Russia had paid it to kill US troops in Afghanistan, in a segment on RT’s show Going Underground. The story – based on anonymous sources – was broken by the Times last month, and triggered a fresh wave of anti-Trump indignation in the media and on the left. President Donald Trump himself called the story a “phony hit job,” while his own Defense Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were unable to corroborate it. “This Russian bounties, it […]
Since the United States first began its occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, remaining troops have had to aid the Kabul government in its fight against the Taliban regime. Washington is now prioritising an agreement with the Islamist group in an effort to end ongoing violence. The US has closed down five military bases in Afghanistan as part of a deal with the Taliban agreed to more than four months ago, a White House representative revealed on Tuesday. The agreement committed to the removal of US forces from bases within the first 135 days, said US President Donald Trump’s special representative to the talks, Zalmay Khalilzad. […]
Not long before Christmas in 2017, Vladimir Putin, the former KGB officer turned Russian leader, did something uncharacteristic. He praised the CIA. Russian security officials had arrested people on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks on St. Petersburg sites that included the majestic Kazan Cathedral. Intelligence warning of the allegedly imminent assault attacks came not from Russian sources, but from Langley. “The information received from the CIA was sufficient to search for and detain criminals,” the Kremlin announced. Putin asked President Trump to convey “words of thanks to the director of the CIA,” at the time Mike Pompeo, now the secretary of […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107982/43/1079824303_0:0:2920:1643_1200x675_80_0_0_d27783f1bc7f39c169a39bb910561bd7.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/asia/202007081079824332-taliban-demands-release-of-600-blacklisted-insurgents-pakistani-fighters—source/ KABUL (Sputnik) – The Afghan government is hanging back on releasing 600 of prisoners on the Taliban’s* list under the US-negotiated deal due to the fact that some of them are on the US and Afghan security blacklists and others are Pakistani fighters, a knowledgeable source in the government told Sputnik on Tuesday. “There are 250 of them on the US blacklist, another 155 of them are Pakistani fighters who were arrested in face-to-face clashes with the Afghan forces, and the rest are on the national directorate of security blacklist”, the source said. According […]
In late June, anonymous intelligence sources told The New York Times that Russia had been offering Taliban fighters cash rewards for killing US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, and alleged that President Trump was informed about it but did nothing. Trump, Moscow, and the Taliban itself have all dismissed the allegations. The Trump administration has narrowed down its search for the NYT ‘Taliban bounties’ story’s intelligence sources to fewer than 10 people, Politico has reported. The individuals in question are believed to have had access to the original intelligence reports featuring the bounty claims, which the president said he never received […]
A New York Times report claiming American intelligence agencies had information about Russia paying the Taliban for attacks on US forces has been denied by both countries’ governments, as well as by the American intelligence community itself. Despite this, the NYT has continued to publish articles based on the report, which is deemed fraudulent. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has vowed that those who leaked a confidential report to The New York Times that was used to draft its recent articles regarding Taliban attacks on American troops will be found and “go to jail” for their crimes. Meadows, who […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo-itemprop.png Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/asia/202007041079794703-us-intelligence-which-accuses-russia-of-deal-with-taliban-is-involved-in-drug-trade-envoy-says/ YAKUTSK (Sputnik) – US intelligence is deeply involved in the Afghan drug trade at the same time as it accuses Russia of conspiring with the Taliban, Special Presidential Envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said on Saturday. “Their [US intelligence’s] planes fly from Kandahar or Bagram to any destination – like Germany or Romania – without any checks. No wonder, such is their business. Any Afghan citizen, anyone, in Kabul could tell you about it. It’s an open secret and everyone is sick and tired of it and dismisses it as a given”, Kabulov said. […]
Earlier in the week, a video conference including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), Abdullah Abdullah, and US International Development Finance Corporation CEO Adam Boehler took place with a goal to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. In a statement following a Friday meeting with Qatar Fund For Development and the Qatar Investment Authority that also involved Taliban representatives, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said that the Taliban “recognize all Afghans will have to make compromises in order to draw in the required investment in Afghanistan’s future”. 1/3 @AdamUSDFC & I have concluded […]
You pay to kill our troops—we won’t invite you to our meeting of world leaders. That’s the scenario being mulled by senior officials in the upper echelons of the Trump administration, who are scrambling for a way to respond to Russia after news broke that Moscow paid bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. forces. One idea these officials have raised with President Donald Trump in recent days: not inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin from attending the G7 summit of global powers later this year. President Trump told reporters in late May that he wanted to invite Russia to the meeting […]
Democrats, their liberal media, Never-Trump RINOs and Liz Cheney are very upset to hear Russia has been paying the Taliban to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan. They’re not doing a very good job.** There were 22 US deaths in Afghanistan total in 2019.** There have been 9 US deaths in Afghanistan so far this year. ** Compare that to the 496 deaths in 2010 and 412 deaths in 2011 under Obama!Facts matter. The Taliban also laughs at these latest reports. In a new report at The Daily Beast the Taliban admits Russia has been paying them for US deaths for several […]
The sitting government in Kabul was the sole entity on Afghan soil to have received Russian arms, Moscow stated, the day after Mike Pompeo bluntly accused it of funneling weapons to the Taliban militants. “Russia has only supplied arms to the legitimate government of Afghanistan – something that is well known”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday. The diplomat was taking aim at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who pulled no punches when talking about Russia this Wednesday. “The Russians have been providing weapons to the Taliban for an awful lot of years, so this is an ongoing […]
In the days since The New York Times broke the news on U.S. intelligence examining claims of Russian bounties being offered to kill American military personnel in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has turned his ire not at the Russian government, but instead on two of his favorite enemies: the news media and their confidential sources. According to two people familiar with the matter, the president in recent days has privately expressed—“rather loudly,” in the words of one of the sources—his desire for a leak investigation into how that story ended up in the Times, and his wish for the leaker or […]
The New York Times is doubling down on claims that Russia offered bounties for the killing of US troops in Afghanistan, but now says local criminals and not the Taliban were the recipients, again offering no actual evidence. The new article, published Tuesday, says that “electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account” was intercepted by US spies and “bolsters suspicions” that Russia offered bounties to militants – as claimed by the Times last week. Breaking News: The U.S. intercepted financial transfer data that bolstered suspicions about Russian bounties […]
A New York Times report last week claimed that Russia may have offered bounties to Afghan militants for killing US troops deployed to the Central Asian coutnry. Both Russia and the Taliban denied the accusations. The White House also insisted Trump wasn’t briefed on the matter. The Pentagon has no evidence to back up allegations about the Russia-Taliban collusion, according to Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman. “The Department of Defense continues to evaluate intelligence that Russian GRU operatives were engaged in malign activity against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan,” Hoffman said in a statement. “To date, DOD has no corroborating […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105764/69/1057646924_0:87:2000:1212_1200x675_80_0_0_b5d8f54e5f8349de498ada451dc5ac30.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/asia/202006281079742611-nine-taliban-militants-killed-during-clashes-in-afghan-province-of-paktia/ KABUL (Sputnik) – Nine Taliban* militants have been killed and five others were wounded during armed clashes in the eastern Afghan province of Paktia, Hayatullah Nizami Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the provincial police force, said on Sunday. According to the spokesman, the clashes took place after militants launched an attack on a checkpoint in the Patan district of the province. No Afghan soldiers were killed or injured during the incident, the spokesman said. The Taliban has yet to make any comment on the attack. Earlier on Sunday, one police officer and 12 Taliban militants […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107971/57/1079715761_0:0:2962:1667_1200x675_80_0_0_1628b4be99c82ecce54eb54a1056f0e3.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/world/202006281079742158-bolton-says-trumps-reaction-to-reports-of-conspiracy-between-russia-taliban-remarkable/ WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Donald Trump’s denial of media reports that he was briefed by intelligence officials of an alleged conspiracy between Russia and the Taliban over the killing of US troops in Afghanistan is “remarkable,” Former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. “It is pretty remarkable the president’s going out of his way to say he hasn’t heard anything about it. One asks, why would he do something like that?” Bolton said during an appearance on the NBC News broadcaster. In a separate appearance on the CNN broadcaster […]
KABUL (Sputnik) – At least five members of the Taliban group have been killed in a blast in Afghanistan’s southeastern province of Paktia, the local police said on Sunday. According to a provincial police chief, the explosion took place while the militants were transferring landmines from the Bar Ghoreza area to the city of Gardez. A security source said on the condition of anonymity that in a separate incident last night, a checkpoint in the southern city of Tirin Kot, the capital of the Uruzgan province, was attacked by Taliban militants. The attack left a deputy commander of battalion killed and […]
The US director of national intelligence has distanced himself from an NYT report claiming Russia paid money to the Taliban for killing US soldiers in Afghanistan. He said the White House was never briefed on the matter. The claim published by the New York Times is, like many such stories, based on anonymous intelligence sources. It says Russia paid “Taliban-linked militants” in Afghanistan to kill US military service members, and that President Donald Trump did nothing after learning about it. The White House has denied that either Trump or Vice President Mike Pence were ever briefed on the alleged situation by […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107925/62/1079256284_0:59:2903:1692_1200x675_80_0_0_2b71635ca67fad0ddb4c422def0538fc.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/asia/202006271079737523-one-police-officer-12-taliban-militants-killed-in-clash-in-eastern-afghanistan/ KABUL (Sputnik) – One police officer and 12 Taliban* militants have been killed in a clash in the Mirzaka district of Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktia, local police said in a statement. “A group of insurgents attacked Mirzaka district, one policeman was killed and another one injured in the clash and 12 insurgents were killed and six others were injured”, the statement read. The Taliban has not yet commented on the conflict. Earlier in the day, fifteen members of the terrorist group were killed and six others were wounded in an attack by the […]
By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor, for Unz Review In March 2001, in the mountains northwest of Kabul, the Taliban blew up two colossal statues of Gautama Buddha. The act was almost universally condemned. But the Taliban’s justification of historic vandalism makes at least as much sense as those offered by today’s American Taliban, who are on a nationwide rampage of statue-destruction. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, confused protesters just destroyed two statues honoring causes they presumably support. One honored Hans Christian Heg, “a Norwegian immigrant, activist and abolitionist who led an anti-slave catcher militia helping slaves escape before serving as a […]
The Trump administration is taking seriously a shocking claim from its enemy in Afghanistan that the Taliban foiled an Islamic State plot to assassinate a senior U.S. diplomat, U.S. officials confirm to The Daily Beast. Officials said they’re investigating an assertion, made in a recent Taliban video, that the local branch of the so-called Islamic State recruited two men to murder Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department’s envoy in charge of negotiating peace with the Taliban. “The U.S. Government takes any potential threat against U.S. personnel seriously,” a State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast. “U.S. officials are investigating the video.” Afghan […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107958/98/1079589849_0:0:3071:1728_1200x675_80_0_0_4ef208a4b08746e0dbb4d55f0b18ad90.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/world/202006121079589703-afghan-president-agrees-to-resume-talks-with-taliban-in-doha-qatars-special-envoy-says/ DOHA (Sputnik) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has agreed to hold a new round of negotiations with the Taliban* in the Qatari capital of Doha, Qatari Foreign Ministry Special Envoy Mutlaq Al-Qahtani said. “President Ghani agreed to hold the negotiations with the Taliban* in Qatar”, Al-Qahtani told Al-Jazeera broadcaster after a meeting with Chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul. According to the broadcaster, Abdullah said after the talks with Al-Qahtani that Kabul was appreciating Doha’s efforts aimed at ensuring peace and security in Afghanistan. On Sunday, the […]
Skirmishes between Taliban militants and security forces recommenced in Afghanistan in the day since a three-day ceasefire ended. However, the government officials said on Thursday that the incidents were minor and the truce could still hold. The Taliban have remained silent on government appeals for an extension of the ceasefire, which was announced for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, Reuters said. “The ceasefire is not over yet,” said Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan national security advisor (NSA). “There have been violations because it is a complicated technical process that requires good coordination […]
I don’t know what to think about this crowd. Their point is ???? Health Editor’s Note: Preachers are suing to be able to gather people together and insure the congregations either infect others, become infected, or both with COVID-19. I ask, what is the purpose of gathering people together to listen to someone speak about…well, whatever is going to be said? Words spoken from a pulpit are not going to protect people from COVID-19 nor cure them of having it. Governors who place stay-at-home orders and then extend those orders are doing what is best for the state. The governors are […]