About: taliban Archives

EU member states on Friday (3 September) laid out their conditions for stepping up engagement with the Taliban, agreeing to establish a joint European–Kabul civilian presence.

Taliban forces and fighters loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud battled in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, more than two weeks after the Islamist militia seized power, as Taliban leaders in the capital, Kabul, worked to form a government.

Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers struggled to keep the country functioning on Wednesday (1 September) after the final withdrawal of US forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.

The European Union will need to engage with the Taliban but it will not rush into formally recognising the Islamist militant group as the new rulers of Afghanistan, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday (1 September).

Facing sharp criticism over the tumultuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said it was the best available option to end both the United States' longest war and decades of fruitless efforts to remake other countries through military force.

Celebratory gunfire echoed across Kabul as Taliban fighters took control of the airport before dawn following the withdrawal of the last US troops, ending 20 years of war that left the Islamic militia stronger than it was in 2001.

France, Britain and Germany are working on a United Nations proposal aimed at establishing a safe zone in Kabul to allow safe passage for people trying to leave Afghanistan, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday (29 August).

A US drone strike killed a suicide car bomber who Pentagon officials said was preparing to strike Kabul airport, as American forces worked to complete a withdrawal that will end two decades of military involvement in Afghanistan.

US forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule braced for more attacks on Friday (27 August) after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed scores of civilians and 13 US soldiers outside the gates of Kabul airport.

The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan is raising fears of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis in Germany as the country presses ahead with the evacuations of vulnerable Afghans and local staff. But, according to academics and civil society, such a fear is unwarranted. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The United States and allies urged people to move away from Kabul airport due to the threat of an Islamic State terror attack as Western troops hurry to evacuate as many Afghans as possible before the 31 August deadline.

At the G7 summit on Tuesday (24 August), EU leaders urged US President Joe Biden to continue securing Kabul airport until operations to evacuate vulnerable Afghans are completed past the 31 August deadline, apparently without success.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau left the door open to sanctions on the Taliban Monday (23 August), noting that the Islamist group that now controls Afghanistan remains a "terrorist entity." "Canada already recognizes, and has for long, that the Taliban are …

The Taliban warned there would be "consequences" if the United States and its allies try to remain in Afghanistan beyond next week, as Washington ramped up its efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people desperate to flee.

US President Joe Biden said he still hopes to finalize the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by 31August, as the Islamists blamed Washington for harrowing scenes of chaos and despair at the airport in Kabul.

Flag-waving protesters took to the streets of more Afghan cities on Thursday as popular opposition to the Taliban spread, and a witness said several people were killed when the militants fired on a crowd in Asadabad in the east.

Armed members of the Taliban kept people desperate to flee Afghanistan from reaching Kabul's airport on Wednesday (18 August), witnesses said, while President Joe Biden vowed to keep US troops in the country until all Americans are evacuated.

Senior Taliban members have met with former president Hamid Karzai and senior official Abdullah Abdullah as they seek to form a government in Afghanistan, pledging it will be "positively different" from their brutal rule two decades ago. But thousands of Afghans …

The Taliban said they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of Kabul.

Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan praised the Taliban's conduct and said the group, still officially designated a terrorist organisation in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.

EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks via videolink Tuesday (17 August) on the situation in Afghanistan as European nations scramble to evacuate personnel from the country, officials said.

China is looking to fill political and security void in the region after the US troops and the West left Afghanistan, for which it had prepared for a long time, writes Jessica Taneja.

The Taliban seized more major cities on Friday as they raced to take full control of Afghanistan and inched closer to Kabul, with the United States and Britain deploying thousands of troops to evacuate their citizens from the capital.

Roughly 45 Afghans employed by Denmark in the conflict-hit country will be offered temporary asylum as international troops withdraw, with other Nordic countries set to follow suit.