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KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Girls in Afghanistan will be allowed to return to school as soon as possible, the Taliban said Tuesday, after announcing the remaining positions in its all-male cabinet. “We are finalising things… it will happen as soon as possible,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on girls’ education. It comes after the education ministry ordered male teachers and students back to secondary school at the weekend, but made no mention of the country’s women […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A top general admitted the United States had made a “mistake” when it launched a drone strike against suspected Islamic State militants in Kabul, killing 10 civilians including children instead during the frenzied final days of the US pullout from Afghanistan last month. The strike, a macabre coda to the 20-year US war in Afghanistan, was meant to target a suspected IS operation that US intelligence had “reasonable certainty” […]
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — Members of Afghanistan’s national girls’ football team have fled across the border into Pakistan dressed in burqas, a month after the hardline Taliban swept back into power, officials said Wednesday. The group of junior players and their coaches and families had tried to escape the country last month but a devastating bomb attack at Kabul airport left them stranded, someone close to the team told AFP. “I received a request for […]
by Mohamad Ali Harissi Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — An international commercial flight left Kabul on Monday, the first since the Taliban retook power last month, offering some hope to Afghans still desperate to leave the country. The Afghan capital’s airport was left trashed after US-led forces finished a chaotic evacuation of more than 120,000 people, and the Taliban have since scrambled to get it operational with technical assistance from Qatar and […]
Afghan women will be allowed to attend university as long as they study separately from men, the Taliban’s new higher education minister said Sunday. Women’s rights in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, though since returning to power last month the hardline Islamists have claimed they will implement a less extreme rule. But speaking to reporters about the new regime’s plans for the country’s education, Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani was unapologetic about […]
by James EDGAR KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Just over 100 passengers, including some Americans, left Kabul airport on Thursday on the first flight carrying foreigners out of the Afghan capital since a US-led evacuation ended on August 30. The first international flight came as the Taliban continue their transition from insurgents to governing power, less than a month after they marched into Kabul and ousted president Ashraf Ghani. More than 100 passengers were on the […]
by Joris FIORITI PARIS, France (AFP) — When thousands of Afghans hoping to escape the incoming Taliban regime were cut off from Kabul airport last month, many started searching for alternative ways to flee. Hundreds made a daring dash for the airport at Mazar-i-Sharif — a city some 300 kilometers (185 miles) to the north on a route that had become punctuated with Taliban checkpoints. Some managed to board charter planes crowdfunded by individuals and […]
by Didier Lauras DOHA, Qatar (AFP) — Qatar said the Taliban have demonstrated “pragmatism” and should be judged on their actions as the undisputed rulers of Afghanistan, but stopped short of announcing formal recognition of the Islamists. Qatari Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwah al-Khater told AFP in an exclusive interview that it would be up to the Afghans to determine their future, not the international community. Doha was the central intermediary between the Taliban, who opened […]
by James EDGAR KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban announced their government on Tuesday, with a UN-blacklisted veteran of the hardline movement in the top role, weeks after they swept to power and toppled the US-backed president. But as the Taliban transitions from militant force to governing power of Afghanistan, security officials grappled with a growing number of protests against its rule, with two people shot dead in the western city of Herat. Mullah Mohammad […]
by James EDGAR KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban on Tuesday fired shots into the air to disperse crowds who had gathered for an anti-Pakistan rally in the capital, the latest protest since the hardline Islamist movement swept to power last month. The Islamists have yet to announce a government, but Afghans — fearful of a repeat of the group’s previous brutal reign between 1996 and 2001 — have staged small, isolated demonstrations in cities […]
by Emmanuel DUPARCQ KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Universities in Kabul were almost empty on the first day of the Afghan school year, as professors and students wrestled with the Taliban’s restrictive new rules for the classroom. The Taliban have promised a softer rule than during their first stint in power from 1996-2001, when women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed and they were banned from higher education. This time, the hardline Islamist group have said […]
by James EDGAR Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban on Monday claimed total control over Afghanistan, saying they had won the key battle for the Panjshir Valley, the last remaining holdout of resistance against their rule. Following their lightning-fast victory in mid-August over the former Afghan government’s security forces and the withdrawal of US troops after 20 years of war, the Taliban turned to fighting the forces defending the mountainous Panjshir […]
