ASHRAF GHANI

The Taliban have hailed China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan with fanfare, saying his arrival is a sign for other nations to come forward and establish relations with them.

An Afghan Sikh family of 13 has found refuge in the diaspora community on Long Island.

The Taliban are marking a year since they seized the Afghan capital of Kabul.

On the eve of the anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan’s former president has defended what he says was a split-second decision to flee.

A year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, prominent Afghan human rights activist Sima Samar is still heartbroken over what happened to her country.

President Joe Biden is lauding the CIA as the “bedrock of our national security,” He visited the agency Friday to mark 75th anniversary since its founding after World War II.

U.S. intelligence agencies have begun a review of how they judge the will and ability of foreign governments to fight.

Afghanistan’s former president has called a White House order to unfreeze $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the U.S. for families of 9/11 victims an atrocity against the Afghan people.

The United Nations secretary-general says the world body has received “credible allegations” that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government, its security forces and those who worked with international troops have been killed since the Taliban takeover of the country on Aug. 15.

A year-old report by Washington's Afghanistan watchdog has now been declassified and shows that it warned back in early 2021 that the Afghan air force would collapse without critical U.S. aid and training.

Afghanistan's former president says he had just minutes to decide to flee in the hours before the Taliban took control of the capital in August.

For Afghanistan, 2021 was punctuated by the chaos of a U.S. withdrawal and an uncertain next chapter.

A top Taliban leader says Afghanistan’s new rulers are committed in principle to education and jobs for girls and women and have learned lessons from their previous time in power.

The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that Afghanistan’s economic collapse “is happening before our eyes” and urged the international community to take action to stop the freefall before it leads to more deaths.

Dubai has gambled billions to make the gleaming, built-from-scratch Expo village a triumphant tourist attraction and symbol of the United Arab Emirates itself.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley are scheduled to appear before the House Armed Services Committee to review the war in Afghanistan.

Female Afghan health workers, teachers and rights defenders are urging the international community to resume financial aid to Afghanistan, saying non-payment has disproportionally impacted women.

The dispute between Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers and its former government over who should speak at the U.N.’s annual meeting of world leaders is over.

The Taliban's newly appointed envoy to the United Nations is urging quick world recognition of the Taliban government and Afghanistan's new rulers even as the World Health Organization raised the alarm warning of an impending humanitarian disaster in the war-wracked country.

The United Nations says the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers since last month, have challenged the credentials of Afghanistan’s former U.N. ambassador and are asking to speak at the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders that began Tuesday.

The friction between pragmatists and ideologues in the Taliban leadership has intensified since the group formed a hard-line Cabinet last week that is more in line with their harsh rule in the 1990s than their recent promises of inclusiveness.

A small flag shop, tucked away in the courtyard of a Kabul market, has documented Afghanistan’s turbulent history over the decades with its ever-changing merchandise.

The United Nations development agency says Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” which could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts are made to bolster local communities and their economies.

The interior ministry of the new Taliban government is seeking to end protests in Afghanistan after days of demonstrations that have brought heavy-handed assaults on protesters.

Officials say at least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days.

Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers face tough economic and security challenges as they return to power in a country that is vastly different from the one they left 20 years ago.

Addressing the nation, President Joe Biden is defending the way the U.S. ended its 20-year “forever war” in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden still faces daunting challenges born of the hasty end of the Afghanistan war.

After two decades, the United States has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war and closing a sad chapter in military history.

On the eve of the final U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, some Kabul residents seemed more anxious about economic collapse than with the Taliban imposing their harsh version of Islam.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is giving radical Islamic groups from Syria and the Gaza Strip to Pakistan and West Africa reason to celebrate.

A firefight outside Kabul’s international airport has killed an Afghan soldier.

President Joe Biden is pledging firmly to bring all Americans home from Afghanistan — and all Afghans who aided the war effort, too.

Afghanistan’s president, driven out by the Taliban, is the latest leader on the run to turn up in the United Arab Emirates.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has called the fall of Afghanistan’s capital and the resurgence of the Taliban “a catastrophe” and “nightmare” that laid bare a failure of intelligence and trans-Atlantic cooperation.

The warnings were clear: The Afghan government would likely fall once U.S. troops pulled out.

President Joe Biden and his national security team say the Trump administration tied their hands when it came to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans looked for ways to escape what they see as a return of a ruthless fundamentalist rule.

The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan says the Taliban have agreed to allow safe passage for civilians trying to leave Afghanistan.

The Taliban have vowed to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists.

The Russian embassy in Kabul has alleged that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled from Kabul with four cars and a helicopter stuffed with cash.

A young Afghan woman stands between two worlds at Kabul's airport, engulfed in panic as thousands of Afghans scramble desperate to get out following the Taliban takeover of the country.

The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. is set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war.

At least seven people are dead after the main airport in the Afghan capital descended into chaos.

America’s top general says the United States could now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban-run Afghanistan.

The Taliban have captured a large, heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan in a major setback for the government.

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 can meet his deadline for fully withdrawing by the end of the month.

The Taliban have captured two major Afghan cities, the country’s second- and third-largest after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital.

Officials says the Taliban seized three more Afghan provincial capitals and a local army headquarters.

Sweeping Taliban conquests in Afghanistan are challenging the Biden administration’s hopes that a desire for international legitimacy will moderate the Taliban's worst behavior.

The Taliban are pressing ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan and have captured nine out of 10 districts of the Helmand provincial capital.

The U.N. says in a new report that more women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in any year since the United Nations began keeping count in 2009.

The spokesman for the Afghan Taliban says the insurgents don't want to monopolize power.

Afghanistan's government says several rockets hit near the presidential palace shortly before President Ashraf Ghani was to give an address to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

A Taliban surge has put the insurgents in control of key border posts, opened up fresh sources of revenue and rattled many of Afghanistan's neighbors.

A powerful northern warlord and a key U.S. ally in the 2001 defeat of the Taliban blames a fractious Afghan government and an “irresponsible" U.S. departure for the insurgents' swift series of wins in recent weeks.

America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan is rapidly winding down and the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in Kabul are looking at a worsening security situation and how to respond.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says his government will do what it can to help secure the release of an American contractor abducted more than a year ago, though he said President Joe Biden didn’t press him on the matter during a White House meeting.

A small group of Afghans who worked as interpreters for the U.S. military have rallied near the American Embassy in Kabul, protesting the red tape that stands in the way of their leaving Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden has promised Afghanistan’s top leaders a “sustained” partnership even as he moves to accelerate winding down the United States’ longest war amid escalating Taliban violence.

President Joe Biden is vowing that Afghans who helped the U.S. military “are not going to be left behind” as his administration steps up planning to evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters while their applications for U.S. entry are processed.

Afghanistan’s foreign minister is accusing the Taliban of carrying out its worst violence in the past two decades.

Local police say Taliban fighters have taken control of a key district in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province and encircled the provincial capital.

President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are bidding a symbolic farewell to Afghanistan at their last summit before the U.S.-led organization pulls out its troops from the country for good.

Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives has won election as the next president of the U.N. General Assembly.

There are growing concerns about one American who risks being left behind as the U.S. moves to withdraw its military from Afghanistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops from the country.

President Joe Biden says he will withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan and end America's longest war.

A Taliban spokesman says the religious militia won’t attend a peace conference tentatively planned for later this week in Turkey.

FILE - In this Saturday, March 20, 2021 file photo, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reviews an honor guard with Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi, India. Austin arrived Sunday, in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)KABUL – State media reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived Sunday in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. State-owned Radio and Television Afghanistan and popular TOLO Television reported Austin's arrival in Kabul from India. He also warned that it is likely the Taliban would make swift territorial gains if U.S. and NATO troops withdrew.

Austin arrived in Kabul on his first trip to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief, amid swirling questions about how long American troops will remain in the country. He also warned that it was likely the Taliban would make swift territorial gains if U.S. and NATO troops withdrew. AdWashington has given both the Taliban and the Afghan government an eight-page peace proposal, which both sides are reviewing. “The main issue is that Taliban has to reduce violence, Taliban has to negotiate in good faith and Taliban has to stop supporting international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda,” he said. AdThe Afghanistan visit comes at the end of Austin’s his first overseas trip as secretary.

FILE - In this March 6, 2021, file photo, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the opening ceremony of the new legislative session of the Parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ghani has made two key Cabinet changes, evoking a strong response Saturday, March 20, 2021 from powerful governing partner Abdullah Abdullah amid increasing pressure from the U.S. to reach a peace agreement with the Taliban. In May 2020, Ghani and political rival Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement, two months after both declared themselves the winner of the September 2019 presidential election. AdThe Cabinet changes could be a sign that Ghani is pushing back against the U.S. and opposition’s increasing support for an interim administration. The talks in Qatar between the Afghan government and the Taliban have stalled, but Russia voiced hope that the talks in Moscow could help reinvigorate them.

The Taliban warned Washington against defying a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan promising a "reaction". He also reaffirmed that the Taliban were firm on their demand for an Islamic government. The Taliban, who during their rule imposed a harsh brand of Islam, now control about half of the country. The joint statement emphasized that the four countries do not support the restoration of an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan similar to the Taliban's past rule. Shaheen emphasized that the Taliban would stick to the goal of building an Islamic state.

Key players are attending, including U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who will lead a 10-member delegation. America's main goal is an Afghanistan peace deal that guarantees its national security and that of its allies. The Afghan government is corrupt and morale is low among Afghan troops. The National Afghan Security Forces are rife with so-called ghost soldiers, who exist only on paper, while enlisted men often don't get paid. At least one member of the Senate subcommittee pointed out that all sides in the Afghan imbroglio are vulnerable.

Afghan Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi speaks during an interview to the Associated Press at the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)KABUL – Afghanistan’s interior minister said Saturday that Afghan security forces can hold their ground even if U.S. troops withdraw, challenging a warning from the United States predicting a withdrawal would yield quick territorial gains to the Taliban. Andarabi said Afghanistan's National Security Forces could hold territory, but would likely endure heavy losses trying to hold remote checkpoints without U.S. air support. Ad“The Afghan security forces are fully capable of defending the capital and the cities and the territories that we are present in right now,” he said. “We think that the Afghan security forces this year have proven to the Taliban that they will not be able to gain territory.”While the Taliban have not attacked U.S. or NATO forces as a condition of the agreement, the Afghan National Security forces have faced some blistering assaults.

A security official inspects the site of a car bomb attack in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, March 13, 2021. A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and injured 47 in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. (AP Photo/Hamed Sarfarazi)KABUL – A powerful car bomb killed at least eight people and wounded 47 in Afghanistan's western Herat province, officials said Saturday. One among the dead and 11 of the injured were Afghan Security Forces personnel while the remainder were civilians, including women and children, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. The U.N. Security Council also called for “full, equal and meaningful participation of women,” and a quick move toward a reduction in violence.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 11, 2021. Afghans are eager for peace and a recently floated U.S. draft for a deal between Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government is the best chance to accelerate stalled peace talks, ex-president Hamid Karzai said in an interview Thursday. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)KABUL – A recently floated U.S. draft for a deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government is the best chance to accelerate stalled peace talks between the country's warring sides, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview Thursday. Karzai, considered a key player in the talks going forward, told the AP that the proposed U.S. peace plan contains important provisions that could help bring peace to Afghanistan — with some revisions by both sides. AdDespite Karzai's optimistic assessment, the Washington plan could encounter serious opposition from President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban.

Frustrated by a stalled peace process and escalating violence, the U.S. has presented an eight-page draft peace agreement to Afghanistan's warring sides for review. She confirmed that all sides had received the U.S.-crafted draft agreement. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)KABUL – Frustrated by a stalled peace process and escalating violence, the U.S. has presented an eight-page draft peace agreement to Afghanistan's warring sides for review. AdIn the letter, Blinken said Washington wanted to see progress on peace talks and mentioned the draft peace agreement, which calls for a new, inclusive government — which Ghani has resisted. The preamble of the U.S. document says the draft peace agreement is intended to jump-start negotiations.

FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2020, file photo, Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, bottom right, speaks at the opening session of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. After more than a month of delays, escalating violence and a flurry of diplomatic activity peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have resumed Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, in the Middle Eastern State of Qatar. When talks ended abruptly in January, just days after beginning, both sides submitted their wish lists for agendas. The priority for the Afghan government, Washington and NATO is a serious reduction in violence leading to a cease fire. AdWashington is reviewing the February 2020 peace deal the previous Trump administration signed with the Taliban that calls for the final withdrawal of international forces by May 1.

FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2020 photo, a Taliban delegation arrive to attend the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. On Jan. 31, 2021, Rasul Talib, a member of the Afghan governments peace negotiating team warned the Taliban that if they dont resume peace talks in Qatar soon, the government could recall the team before a deal is reached. Talib said in a press conference the team is waiting for the return of the Taliban leadership to Doha, Qatar, where a second round of peace talks began this month but has made little progress. (AP Photo/ Hussein Sayed, File)KABUL – A member of the Afghan government's peace negotiating team Sunday warned the Taliban that if they don't resume peace talks in Qatar soon, the government could recall the team before a deal is reached. Meanwhile, the Afghan peace negotiating team praised President Biden’s administration for its decision to review the U.S.-Taliban peace deal, saying the deal favors the Taliban.

The Biden administration must determine how to handle that commitment. Frerichs' supporters are concerned that a drawdown of military personnel from Afghanistan leaves the U.S. without the leverage it needs to demand his release. AdThe State Department is offering $5 million for information leading to Frerichs' return. We will not stop working until we secure his safe return home,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “You don’t leave Americans behind, and I just really want to make sure that he’s home safe.”AdBlinken told reporters Wednesday that the Biden administration wanted to take a detailed look at that deal, saying.

WASHINGTON – Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Tuesday, meeting top leaders during the American troop withdrawal. The Pentagon said Miller met Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. commander in the country. There are now about 4,000 U.S. troops in the country, and military leaders say they will reach the 2,500 target on time. The Pentagon said the acting secretary met his military leaders to discuss the Taliban violence and the continuing U.S. mission there. He visited U.S. troops and military leaders at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath.

(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)KABUL – A car bomb blast that rocked Afghanistan's capital Sunday morning killed at least nine people, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi told reporters at the site of the attack that the attack wounded around 20 others, including a member of parliament, Khan Mohammad Wardak. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital of Kabul in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people, most of them students. IS also claimed responsibility for Saturday's rocket attacks at the major U.S. base in Afghanistan.

The top U.S. military officer has held an unannounced meeting with Taliban peace negotiators to push for a reduction in violence in Afghanistan. Milley held an unannounced meeting with Taliban leaders in Doha, Qatar, to discuss military aspects of last February’s U.S.-Taliban agreement, which was intended to set the stage for direct peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. In his talks with the Taliban on Tuesday, Milley urged a reduction in violence across Afghanistan, as senior American officials in Kabul warned that stepped-up Taliban attacks endanger the militant group's nascent peace negotiations with the Afghan government. Speaking in the same interview, Ross Wilson, the ranking American diplomat in Kabul, said he also sees growing risk from Taliban violence. “Military commanders on the ground are now starting to do things that are not conducive to peace talks and reconstruction and stability,” Miller said.

ISLAMABAD – The U.S. envoy who brokered the ongoing peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban said Wednesday the two sides have overcome a three-month impasse and agreed on rules and procedures for the negotiations. But first they must decide on the agenda for the negotiations, which is the next step. A cease-fire, rights of women and minorities, and constitutional amendments are expected to top the agenda. There were no details about the document, but Taliban spokesman Mohammed Naeem said the two sides have appointed a committee to hammer out the agenda items. The Taliban have staged deadly attacks on Afghan forces while keeping their promise not to attack U.S. and NATO troops.

Relatives carry the dead body of a boy who was killed by a mortar shell attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020. It comes as the COVID-19 crisis has commanded worldwide attention, and its outbreak in Afghanistan has compounded persistent ills like corruption and extremist violence. While hoping to help along the peace talks, donors pointed to their own commitments — both with forces and funds — over the years, and warned that their continued help would be contingent on efforts by Afghans themselves and no backsliding on progress. Atmar, the Afghan foreign minister, said the two sides had reached agreement on 20 points — but one on the “legal basis for the negotiations” remained unresolved. In the past, she has said that despite some progress, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or a child.

(AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary, File)KABUL – Afghanistan’s dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. But, without what they say is adequate protection from the government, the attacks by the Islamic State group may complete the exodus. Still, he joined a group of Sikhs and Hindus who left Afghanistan last month for India, from where they will eventually move on to a third country. In August, a group of 176 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus went to India on special visas. For Afghan Sikhs, the thought of being uprooted is painful, despite the circumstances.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)KABUL – The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan warned that extremists groups are planning attacks against a “variety of targets” but are taking particular aim at women. The "Taliban don't have any plans to carry out any such attacks," the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told The Associated Press on Friday. The IS affiliate has declared war on minority Shiite Muslims and has claimed credit for horrific attacks targeting them. Women are now members of parliament, girls have the right to education, women are in the workforce and their rights are enshrined in the constitution. The 2018 Women, Peace and Security Index rated Afghanistan as the second worst place in the world to be a woman, after Syria.

During his election campaign four years ago, Trump vowed to bring all troops home from endless wars." But their approaches differ, and the outcome of the Nov. 3 election will have long-term consequences not only for U.S. troops, but for the wider region. “We’re getting out of the endless wars,” Trump told White House reporters recently. With an eye toward the election, Trump has accelerated his push to bring troops home. “Everybody wants to be able to bring troops home from Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Taliban delegation arrive to attend the opening session of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. The big hurdle is likely to be what to do with tens of thousands of armed Taliban fighters and the militias loyal to government-allied warlords. Taliban fighters have been battling the upstart affiliate, but the Taliban have already lost fighters to the radical militant Sunni Muslim group. Many Taliban fighters are disillusioned at their leaders entering peace negotiations and believe they could win militarily, with nearly 50% of the country already mostly in their control. Washington’s watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, has expressed concerns that Taliban fighters returning to their homes could be targeted by corrupt officials or threatened by authorities.

Saturday's launch of intra-Afghan talks, attended by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, follows the U.S.-brokered recognition of Israel by two Gulf nations — Bahrain on Friday and the United Arab Emirates earlier this month. ”The intra-Afghan negotiations were laid out in a peace deal Washington signed with the Taliban on Feb. 29. At that time the deal was touted as Afghanistan's best chance at peace in 40 years of war. Abdullah was named to head the High Council for National Reconciliation overseeing the peace talks as part of a power-sharing agreement to end the bickering. “Trump likely wants a peace deal before the election, so that he can garner political benefits galore and pitch himself as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate.

ISLAMABAD – Much anticipated negotiations between Afghanistan's warring parties are likely to be “contentious,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Friday, but are the only way forward if Afghans are to find peace after decades of relentless conflict. “It’s their country to figure out how to move forward and make a better life for all Afghan people,” he said. In the countdown to this November's presidential polls, Washington has ramped up pressure to start intra-Afghan negotiations. But Pompeo warned of spoilers to peace, citing recent targeted killings in Afghanistan and an attempted assassination earlier this week of Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh. The six were among 5,000 Taliban prisoner the U.S. peace deal called on the Afghan government to free before the start of negotiations.

ISLAMABAD – The long-awaited peace talks with the negotiating team selected by the Afghan government are to begin on Saturday in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, the Taliban said in a statement on Thursday. The start of negotiations was was also announced by Qatar's foreign ministry and Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, confirmed in a tweet that their delegation will be in Qatar's capital of Doha for the talks. The talks — known as intra-Afghan negotiations — were laid out in a peace deal that Washington brokered with the Taliban and signed in February, also in Doha, where the Taliban maintain a political office. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the U.S.-Taliban deal signed on Feb. 29, has been in Doha for the past week, trying to push the talks forward. Washington and NATO have already begun withdrawing troops and by November America expects to have less than 5,000 troops still in Afghanistan.

Officials on both sides of Afghanistan's protracted conflict say efforts are ramping up for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, a critical next step to a U.S. negotiated peace deal with the Taliban. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)KABUL Officials on both sides of Afghanistans protracted conflict say efforts are ramping up for a start to intra-Afghan negotiations, a critical next step to a U.S.-negotiated peace deal with the Taliban. The peace deal, which calls for the intra-Afghan negotiations, was signed by the U.S. and the Taliban in February and was seen at the time as Afghanistans best hope at peace after four decades of war. President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the High Council for National Reconciliation, the umbrella organization overseeing the government talks, says a reduction of violence or cease-fire will top their agenda. The group has reportedly completed its agenda and its 20-member negotiation team reports directly to Taliban chief Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The negotiations were envisaged under a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement signed in February as intra-Afghan talks to decide the war-torn countrys future. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree late Saturday establishing the 46-member council, led by his former rival in last years presidential election, Abdullah Abdullah, who is now in the government. The council will have the final say and will ultimately decide on the points that the negotiating team takes up with the Taliban. Among them is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who signed a peace deal with Ghani in 2016 but previously was declared a terrorist by the U.S. The Taliban team answers only to the insurgents' leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada.

The death toll from heavy flooding in northern and eastern Afghanistan rose to at least 150 on Thursday, with scores more injured as rescue crews searched for survivors beneath the mud and rubble of collapsed houses, officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)CHARIKAR The death toll from two days of heavy flooding in northern and eastern Afghanistan rose to at least 150 on Thursday, with scores more injured as rescue crews searched for survivors beneath the mud and rubble of collapsed houses, officials said. Flash floods inundated the city of Charikar in northern Parwan province starting Tuesday night. Mohammad Qasim Haidari, Afghanistan's deputy minister for disaster management, said the casualty toll may rise as rescue teams and volunteers were still working to locate people buried under destroyed houses. Ahmad Tameem Azimi, spokesman of the disaster management ministry, said flooding blocked highways to eastern and northern provinces.

Afghanistan has released the first 86 of a final 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for negotiations between the warring sides in Afghanistans protracted conflict, the government said Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/ Rahmat Gul, File)KABUL Afghanistan has released the first 80 of a final 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for negotiations between the warring sides in Afghanistans protracted conflict, the government said Friday. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad spent a year and a half negotiating the peace deal aimed at allowing American troops to return home and end America's longest military engagement. The withdrawal is not tied to successful talks between the warring sides. In 2016, Ghani negotiated a peace deal with Hekmatyar, whose Hezb-e-Islami group took responsibility for several bombings in Kabul, including one at a grocery story in the capital that killed a young family.

(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)KABUL A traditional Afghan council concluded Sunday with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan's warring sides. The Taliban have said they were ready for talks immediately after their final prisoners were released and that a ceasefire would be one of the first items of negotiations. The move looks to bring the United States a little closer to bringing its troops home and end its longest military engagement. The Afghan negotiations were laid out in a peace deal signed by the United States and the Taliban in February. The withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops is not dependent on the success of negotiations between Kabul's political leadership and the Taliban.

The statement would indicate that Washington was not ready to accept a decision to deny the 400 Taliban their freedom. Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said previously that a permanent cease-fire could be one of the first items on the agenda of negotiations between the Taliban and Kabul's leadership. The United States intends to hold the Taliban to these commitments. The intra-Afghan negotiations that Washington had hoped would begin in March have been delayed by the reluctance of Kabul to release the Taliban prisoners. The deal called on Kabul to free 5,000 Taliban and the insurgent group to free 1,000 government and military personnel.