The SIGAR report, compiled based on interviews of at least 30 former officials, including those close to Ghani, suggests a little over $500,000 million in cash on board the helicopters. Significantly, the fund that Ghani took away was not the government fund but was the leftover amount that the UAE government had provided to Ghani to support his 2019 presidential campaign.
More than a score of terrorist organizations having a total strength of 23,000 militants are operating in Afghanistan at the moment, according to different estimates, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, told Russian media in New Delhi following multilateral consultations on Afghanistan on Wednesday
The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, has allowed the girls’ schools of higher secondary level to open in the western city of Herat, almost after three months after the group captured power
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNICEF, a UN agency for children and women, began on Monday a nationwide polio vaccination drive-- the first in the last three years--in Afghanistan, the country now under the complete control of the hardline Islamist group, the Taliban
About 20 people were killed and over 50 injured in an attack on a military hospital in Kabul on Tuesday, the latest assault to rock Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power
The anti-Taliban resistance front led by Ahmad Massoud and former Afghan first vice president Amrullah Saleh has announced they would resume their fighting soon against the Taliban, reported Russian news agency TASS, as the group’s leaders, believed to be based in neighboring Tajikistan, are trying to lobby support from key international players and regional powers
Russia, which became an important player after the US exit from Afghanistan, has been walking a thin line on the Taliban, staying away from outrightly recognizing the hardline Islamist regime while, at the same time, stressing the importance of continuing engagement with the Taliban
The Taliban plans to create a new national army, said Taliban’s Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob, adding the new force would be capable of defending the country’s territorial integrity
The European Union (EU) is considering restoring its diplomatic mission in Afghanistan in the coming months as the bloc moves to explore ways to deal with the Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan
The collapse of the former government was not in the interest of the Afghan people, Taliban Spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said, adding the situation would have been much better if they had reached a meaningful peace deal
On 16th August 2021, a day after the Taliban captured Kabul, the group’s leader Haibatullah Akhundzada issued a statement, claiming the war was over in Afghanistan
The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, praised its suicide bombers who died during the war in the last twenty years, fighting against the former government and its Western allies, and has offered their families and relatives sums of cash and promise of land
Russia is not ready to recognize the Taliban for now, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding Moscow will work with other countries to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the 2020 Doha Deal with the Taliban, resigned on Tuesday--almost two months after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan--as the US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, the US State Department confirmed
The Taliban government needs to seek internal legitimacy first for it to gain international recognition, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said, advising the guerilla group, which seized power militarily two months back, to respect the "will of the people" and to "hold Loya Jirga", a traditional grand assembly of village elders
The Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, has promised to increase security at Shia mosques following two attacks that killed hundreds of worshippers in the past few weeks
