Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Saturday captured a large, heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan in a major setback for the government, and were approaching the capital of Kabul, less than three weeks before the U.S.

The Latest developments on Afghanistan, where a weeklong Taliban offensive is now approaching the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, after the insurgents captured most of the north, west and south of the country, just weeks ahead of the final pullout of all U.S.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A fresh contingent of Marines arrived in Kabul on Saturday as part of a 3,000-troop force intended to secure an airlift of U.S. Embassy personnel and Afghan allies as Taliban insurgents approach the outskirts of the capital.

Here's what 19-year-old Lance Cpl. William Bee felt flying into southern Afghanistan on Christmas Day 2001: purely lucky. The U.S. was hitting back at the al-Qaida plotters who had brought down the World Trade Center, and Bee found himself among the first Marines on the ground.

Here's what 19-year-old Lance Cpl. William Bee felt flying into southern Afghanistan on Christmas Day 2001: purely lucky. The U.S. was hitting back at the al-Qaida plotters who had brought down the World Trade Center, and Bee found himself among the first Marines on the ground.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — As a Taliban offensive encircles the Afghan capital, there's increasingly only one way out for those fleeing the war, and only one way in for U.S. troops sent to protect American diplomats still on the ground: Kabul's international airport.

At just short of 20 years, the now-ending U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan was America's longest war. Ordinary Americans tended to forget about it, and it received measurably less oversight from Congress than the Vietnam War did.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last-minute decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help partially evacuate the U.S. Embassy is calling into question whether President Joe Biden will meet his Aug.

The Latest developments on Afghanistan, where a weeklong Taliban blitz has taken large swaths of territory just weeks ahead of the final pullout of all American and NATO troops from the war-torn country:

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban completed their sweep of Afghanistan's south on Friday, taking four more provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that brought them closer to Kabul just weeks before the U.S.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — It was early evening and Zahra, her mother and three sisters were on their way to dinner at another sister's home when they saw people running and heard gunshots on the street.

LONDON (AP) — For a large chunk of the past 20 years, British troops fought hard to ensure that the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand did not fall into the hands of the Taliban.

Confirmation Friday that the Taliban had captured Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, had particular resonance in Britain.

ROME (AP) — Gino Strada, an Italian surgeon who co-founded the humanitarian group Emergency to provide medical care for civilian victims of war and poverty in many countries, and was a fierce critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, has died.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia is working urgently with the United States to evacuate the last Afghans who helped Australian troops and diplomats as Taliban insurgents make rapid territorial gains across Afghanistan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban captured two major Afghan cities, the country's second- and third-largest after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of the American military mission in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just weeks before the U.S. is scheduled to end its war in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rushing 3,000 fresh troops to the Kabul airport to help with a partial evacuation of the U.S.

LONDON (AP) — Britain said Thursday that it will send around 600 troops to Afghanistan to help U.K. nationals leave the country amid growing concerns about the security situation following the rapid advance of the Taliban.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghan government forces are collapsing even faster than U.S. military leaders thought possible just a few months ago when President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — When Wahab disappeared from his home in Afghanistan to sign on for jihad, it was in neighboring Pakistan that he got his training.

The 20-year-old was recruited by childhood friends and was taken to a militant outpost in Parachinar, on Pakistan’s rugged mountainous border with Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host a virtual ”summit for democracy" in December, the White House said Wednesday, as he aims to assemble government, civil society and private sector leaders in what he has cast as a global faceoff against rising autocratic forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban seized three more Afghan provincial capitals and a local army headquarters Wednesday, completing a blitz across the country's northeast and giving them control of two-thirds of the nation as the U.S.

Sweeping Taliban conquests in Afghanistan this week are challenging the Biden administration’s hopes that a desire for international respect — and for international aid and cash — will moderate the fundamentalist militia’s worst behaviors when the U.S.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany and the Netherlands have suspended any deportations of migrants to Afghanistan due to the tense security situation as Taliban insurgents make sweeping gains in the Central Asian country.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in northern Afghanistan to escape battles that have overwhelmed their towns and villages as government forces try to fend off rapidly advancing Taliban forces.

MOSCOW (AP) — Troops from Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on Tuesday wrapped up their drills intended to simulate a joint response to potential security threats coming from Afghanistan.

The war games that began last week involved 2,500 Russian, Tajik and Uzbek troops and about 500 military vehicles.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese and Russian troops have engaged in joint exercises in northwestern China in a sign of growing military ties between Moscow and Beijing amid shared concerns over the instability in Afghanistan.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Six European Union member countries insist that the forced deportation of migrants back to Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents have made sweeping gains in recent weeks, must continue despite the government in Kabul suspending such “non-voluntary returns” for three months.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Some of the foreign contractors who powered the logistics of America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan now find themselves stranded on an unending layover in Dubai without a way to get home.

The United States showed no sign Monday of stepping up airstrikes in Afghanistan despite accelerating Taliban gains there. A Pentagon spokesman emphasized that Americans now see the fight as one for Afghan political and military leaders to win or lose.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A protracted war in neighboring Afghanistan is Pakistan's “nightmare scenario,” the country's national security advisor said Monday. He also slammed relentless blaming of Islamabad for the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban took control of two more provincial capitals in Afghanistan on Monday, officials said. Their fall marked the latest development in a weekslong, relentless Taliban offensive as American and NATO forces finalize their pullout from the war-torn country.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters entered the capital of northern Afghanistan’s Jawzjan province Saturday, a provincial lawmaker said, after sweeping through nine of 10 districts in the province.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. envoy for Afghanistan urged the Security Council on Friday to demand that the Taliban immediately stop attacking cities in their offensive to take more territory as American and NATO troops pull out of the country.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban ambushed and killed the director of Afghanistan's government media center on Friday in the capital, Kabul, the latest killing of a government official just days after an assassination attempt on the country's acting defense minister.

TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan (AP) — Leaders from five ex-Soviet Central Asian nations on Friday voiced concern about instability possibly spilling out of Afghanistan and discussed their response to potential security threats, while Russian heavy bombers carried out practice strikes in joint drills near the Afghan border.

BEIJING (AP) — China has appointed a new military commander in restive Xinjiang where authorities have locked up more than a million members of Muslim minorities in what they call a bid to curb terrorism and radicalism.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. and Afghan airstrikes hit Taliban targets overnight in southern Helmand province in an effort to dislodge the insurgents after they captured much of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, officials said Wednesday.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bombing attack that targeted Afghanistan’s acting defense minister killed at least eight people and wounded 20, authorities said Wednesday. The deputy minister was not hurt in the attack claimed by Taliban insurgents.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A powerful explosion rocked an upscale neighborhood of Afghanistan's capital Tuesday in an attack that apparently targeted the country's acting defense minister. At least 10 people were wounded, a health official said.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council condemned deliberate attacks on civilians in Afghanistan and all instances of terrorism “in the strongest terms” on Tuesday, while declaring its opposition to restoration of rule by the Taliban.

TORKHAM, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s military said Tuesday it has completed 90% of a fence being constructed along the border with Afghanistan, vowing to complete the project this summer.

Pakistan says it is constructing the fence to prevent cross-border militant attacks.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban pressed ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, capturing nine out of 10 districts of the Helmand provincial capital, residents and officials said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan president on Monday blamed the American troops' speedy pullout for the worsening violence in his country and said that his administration would now focus on protecting provincial capitals and major urban areas in the face of the rapidly advancing Taliban.