Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s insurgency can be brought to an end through “soft diplomacy” with the Taliban, if Western forces commit to a timetable to withdraw from the country, a veteran of past negotiations with the militants says. Sayed Jalal, a former child prodigy famous across the country for brokering talks between Iran …

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said U.S. efforts to tame the growing Taliban insurgency through negotiations would fail unless his government agreed to such talks. The Obama administration has announced it will send more troops and economic assistance to Afghanistan as well as intensify diplomacy within the region in …

Kabul – The United Nations office in Afghanistan Monday condemned the assassination of a woman provincial legislator in southern Afghanistan by Taliban militants. Sitara Achikzai, who was aged in her 50s, was shot dead Sunday afternoon by Taliban fighters riding on motorbikes outside her home in Kandahar city, the capital …

HERAT, Afghanistan – Taliban militants publicly executed a man and girl on Monday for eloping when she was already engaged to marry someone else, an official said, in a sign of the grip the Islamists have over parts of Afghanistan. Hashim Noorzai, head of Khash Rud district in southwestern Nimruz …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan  – Taliban gunmen on motorbikes gunned down a woman provincial legislator in Afghanistan Sunday as authorities said they had killed 40 more Taliban in their battle to defeat the extremists. Legislator Sitara Achikzai, a high school teacher and women’s rights activist in her 50s, was shot dead outside …

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A female provincial official known for fighting for women’s rights was gunned down in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, following a day of fighting in the region that left 22 militants dead, officials said. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmedi, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Afghan government won’t allow any law that would force women to have sex with their husbands or prevent them from leaving their homes, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Washington said yesterday. “Definitely not,” Ambassador Said Jawad said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend. …

Afghanistan  – Taliban insurgents attacked a police post in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province Friday, killing six policemen and wounding another seven, the provincial government said.mi The attack occurred in the Nawa district, just outside the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said. “This morning (the) Taliban …

BUCHAREST, Romania – A Romanian Army officer died and four others suffered injuries in a blast in Afghanistan on Tuesday (April 7th), the defence ministry announced. Captain Iuliu-Vasile Unguras was leading a patrol on a highway linking Kandahar and Kabul. One of the vehicles ran over an improvised explosive device …

The Army is building $1.1 billion worth of military bases and other facilities in Afghanistan and is planning to start an additional $1.3 billion in projects this year, according to Col. Thomas E. O’Donovan, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan District. Massive construction of barracks, training areas, …