By Saeed Ali Achakzai, Reuters The fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has urged his followers to step up suicide attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and remain united, according to a Taliban commander. Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent weeks after a winter lull, following last year’s bloodiest …

BBC News – The Taleban have threatened that hundreds of suicide bombers will attack the Afghan government and foreign military targets this year. Mark Dummett reports from Kabul on the increasing fear of violence in the country. It seems as if the Taleban’s much-hyped spring offensive may have finally begun, …

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press A purported Taliban statement demanded the release of a number of the group’s fighters and the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers. Separately, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in eastern Afghanistan in …

BBC News – Staff at an Afghan television station in the capital, Kabul, have protested against a raid by armed police who allegedly assaulted workers there. Dozens of journalists and Members of Parliament demonstrated outside parliament against the raid. They accused President Hamid Karzai of smothering freedom of speech during …

By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press The U.S. will keep a close eye on Iran’s involvement in Afghanistan following reports that Taliban insurgents used Iranian-made weapons against NATO forces, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. Richard Boucher, Assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told reporters that Washington would …

AFP – UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed distress Tuesday over the deaths of five UN contractors in a bomb attack in Afghanistan, as well over mounting civilian casualties in the country. “The secretary general was deeply distressed to learn of the fatal incident which occurred earlier this morning, when a …

By Raju Gopalakrishnan, Reuters When U.S.-led forces defeated the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan in 2001, the Hazaras, a tribe living in the central mountains, cheered the loudest. The mostly Shi’ite Hazaras had been oppressed by the Sunni rulers in Kabul through centuries of tumultuous Afghan history. But when the strictly …

By Terry Friel KABUL (Reuters) – As the bloodshed in Afghanistan worsens, the Taliban are increasingly targeting civilians, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a new report on Monday. The group accuses the Taliban and other insurgents of war crimes in its latest report, “The Human Cost.” “Suicide …

By Mark Dummett, BBC News Civilians have been the main victims of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in the past 15 months, a study has revealed. Even though most attacks have been on military and government targets, most victims have nothing to do with either, the Human Rights Watch study said. …

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide attacker ran onto a police training ground and blew himself up, killing up to 10 policemen and wounding dozens more Monday in northern Afghanistan, a security official said. The attack happened in the relatively quiet city of Kunduz, said Abdul Hadi, a security official. Hadi …