Abdullah Abdullah, head of the National Reconciliation Council, said he and former President Hamid Karzai met with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani today to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the formation of a coalition government. (TOLOnews)
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid says he lived in Kabul right under the noses of his adversaries
Taliban’s spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, who appeared before the media for the first time in a decade at a press conference after the insurgent group seized Kabul last month, said that he lived in the Afghan capital right under the nose of his adversaries who considered him a 'ghost-like' figure during the war.
'The Punjabi guest did not allow an inclusive Taliban government'
An audio file attributed to a Taliban official, said to be Mullah Fazel, the Taliban's Deputy Defence Minister surfaced in which he says that the "Punjabi guest" (referring to Pakistani intelligence chief Gen Faiz Hameed) had created a major problem for the group and prevented the formation of an inclusive government.
Female doctor in Kandahar claims to be beaten by Taliban: Khaama Press.
Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political bureau in Qatar, said the International Union of Muslim Scholars had sent a congratulatory message to Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban cabinet, announcing their readiness to work with the Taliban government. (TOLOnews)
Taliban forces currently stationed in Kabul will soon be replaced with a combination of police forces of the former govt along with Taliban forces and all will have uniforms, the Taliban told TOLOnews on Sunday.
Afghan musicians flee Kabul, fearing for their lives and dire future for art under Taliban rule
As the Taliban tighten its grip on power in Afghanistan, patrons of the popular Afghan music in Pakistan are shutting their offices with artists in Kabul being forced to flee into hiding, resulting in the cancellation of music programmes and huge losses for the industry.
Afghan police return to work alongside Taliban at airport
Afghan police at Kabul airport have returned to work manning checkpoints alongside Taliban security for the first time since the Islamists seized power, officers said Sunday.
20 years after 9/11: Al-Qaeda is defeated – but jihadism is here to stay
Twenty years ago, the terrorist group al-Qaeda carried out the deadliest attack on US soil the world had ever seen. Overnight, al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden became the most notorious terrorist to date,writes Christina Hellmich,
Taliban’s ‘spectacularly uninclusive’ govt unlikely to survive: William Dalrymple
Describing the new Afghanistan government as “spectacularly uninclusive” even within the Taliban frame, author-historian William Dalrymple says the "all-male old guard ultra-conservative Pashtun mullah” establishment is unlikely to survive.
Surprised that the Taliban talked about inclusivity but did not even “dress it up”, the author of “Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan” said the new government wouldn’t appeal to either western donors', 60 per cent of Afghans or women who comprise 50 per cent of the country's population. (PTI)
World needs to engage Afghan Taliban to prevent refugee crisis: Pak NSA
The world needs to constructively engage the Taliban in Afghanistan to prevent a governance collapse and avert another refugee crisis, Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf said on Saturday.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad on ‘Future of Afghanistan and Regional Stability: Challenges, Opportunities & Way Forward’, he said that abandoning Afghanistan again by the international community will be a mistake. (PTI)
Pak ISI chief hosts security meeting of intel head of regional countries on Afghanistan
Pakistan’s ISI chief on Saturday hosted a key security meeting of intelligence heads of regional countries, including China, on the evolving situation in Afghanistan, according to media reports.
Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), discussed the issue of Afghanistan with intelligence heads of China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan here, The Express Tribune reported. (PTI)
India, Australia pitch for 'broad-based and inclusive govt' in Afghanistan
India and Australia have called for a "broad-based and inclusive" government in Afghanistan to ensure long-term peace and stability in the war-torn country, signalling their clear unwillingness to accord any recognition to the Taliban regime.
In a joint statement issued early on Sunday following the inaugural India-Australia 2+2 ministerial dialogue, the two sides sought the protection of rights of women and children and their full participation in public life and expressed concerns over targeted violence against the defenders of their rights.
The two countries underlined the urgent need for all countries to take "immediate, sustained, verifiable and irreversible" action to ensure that no territory under their control is used for terrorist attacks and to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of such strikes. (PTI)
Ex-Afghan leader hosts tribal elders on 9/11
Afghanistan's first 2001 post-Taliban president Hamid Karzai marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America with a meeting of tribal elders at his high-walled compound in the Afghan capital where he has remained with his family since the August return of the Taliban to Kabul. (AP)
One of the last US Marines killed in Afghanistan comes home
USMarine Sergeant Johanny Rosario returned to her hometown in Massachusetts in a casket on Saturday, one of the last American service members killed in Afghanistan during a war set in motion exactly two decades ago by the September11, 2001 attacks.
Several hundred people gathered near the Farrah Funeral Home in Lawrence, Mass., where Rosario's remains arrived in a black hearse with a police motorcycle escort. Marines in dress uniform carried the casket into the funeral home, as veterans in the crowd, some of whom had not worn a uniform in years, snapped to attention. (Reuters)
Biden again defends Afghanistan pullout on 9/11
President Joe Biden, speaking unexpectedly during a visit to the Pennsylvania site of one of the 9/11 plane crashes, again defended the widely criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the US could not "invade" every country where Al-Qaeda is present.
"Could Al-Qaeda come back (in Afghanistan)?" he asked in an exchange with reporters outside a Shanksville fire station. "Yeah. But guess what, it's already back other places.
"What's the strategy? Every place where Al-Qaeda is, we're going to invade and have troops stay in? C'mon." (AFP)
Former US president Donald Trump on Saturday used the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to slam the "horrible" withdrawal from Afghanistan and the "incompetence" of Joe Biden's administration during the frenzied end to America's longest war.
"It's a horrible thing that took place, a horrible, horrible thing," Trump said in televised comments during a visit to the New York Police Department's 17th precinct.
World Food Programme's message about malnutrition in Afghanistan
Unaccompanied children evacuated from Afghanistan in Qatar limbo
Afghan refugee childrenare now being cared for by Qatar Charity, a humanitarian organisation that has sought to protect and keep them out of the reach of people traffickers
Officials are picking a path for the future of the children who have adopted new routines, playing football, exercising and enjoying arts and crafts.
"It's very hard to imagine the trauma that they've been through," said an aid worker based in the Middle East who declined to be named.
"All of them are in a state of shock and trauma, similar to what we've seen in places like Iraq or Syria with kids who have lived in (Islamic State group) areas." (AFP)
Afghanistan should never again become safe haven for 'breeding and training' of terrorists: India, Australia after 2+2 dialogue
Afghanistan must not allow its soil to be used for terrorism and it should never again become a safe haven for "breeding and training" of terrorists, India and Australia asserted on Saturday as they joined the world in marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
A resolve to deepen strategic cooperation and a commitment towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific in the face of increasing Chinese assertiveness were some of the key highlights of the inaugural '2+2' talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton. (PTI)
George W. Bush warns of danger from domestic terrorists on 9/11 anniversary
On the 20th anniversary of the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, George W. Bush, who was president at the time, warned of a new danger coming from within the country.
"We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come, not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within," Bush said on Saturday at the 9/11 memorial site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"There is little cultural overlaps between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home ... they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them." (Reuters)
As world marks 9/11, Taliban flag raised over seat of power
TheTalibanraised their iconic whiteflagover the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesman said, as the US and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of theTalibaninterim government, in a low-key ceremony, said Ahmadullah Muttaqi, multimedia branch chief of theTaliban's cultural commission. (AP)
Twenty years after 9/11, one of the last US Marines killed in Afghanistan comes home
USMarine Sergeant Johanny Rosario returned to her hometown in Massachusetts in a casket on Saturday, one of the last American service members killed inAfghanistanduring a war set in motion exactly two decades ago by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Several hundred people gathered near the Farrah Funeral Home in Lawrence, Mass., where Rosario's remains arrived in a black hearse with a police motorcycle escort. Marines in dress uniform carried the casket into the funeral home, as veterans in the crowd, some of whom had not worn a uniform in years, snapped to attention. (Reuters)
Quandary at UN: Who speaks for Myanmar and Afghanistan?
Myanmar’s brutal military coup and the Taliban’s triumphal return to power in Afghanistan are among the crises confronting the United Nations as it convenes its annual General Assembly this coming week.