A new quarterly U.S. report has documented a staggering 82% increase in “insider attacks” on Afghan government security forces in the first quarter of 2021, resulting in 115 personnel killed and 39 wounded. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported Thursday to the U.S. Congress that overall Afghan …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed planned parliamentary elections amid a dispute over voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds as well as splits in his Fatah movement and its unpopularity, triggering protests in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. Abbas told a conference of senior Palestinian officials …

Feuding factions on both sides of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border implemented a cease-fire on the evening of April 29 that ended some 24 hours of the worst and most widespread fighting the restive region has seen since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Tensions between the Kyrgyz and Tajik communities along …