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Afghanistan after the US withdrawal

Afghanistan after the US withdrawal
US President Joe Biden committed to withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by August 31, 2021. The deadline was set after the Taliban took control of the country, seizing the capital city of Kabul as the Afghan government under President Ashraf Ghani dissolved on August 15. The Biden administration had initially announced a full withdrawal of troops by 11 September 2021 – 20 years after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Afghan girls at a primary school in Kabul. The Taliban does not permit girls to study beyond primary education. Photo: AFP
Afghanistan

2.4 million Afghan girls banned from schools 5 years after Taliban takeover: UN

The United Nations is urging an end to the ‘discriminatory’ Taliban policy that prevents girls from studying beyond primary school.

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Pakistan

‘Mini Kabul’ falls silent as Pakistan targets undocumented Afghans in border province

United States

General who was last US soldier out of Afghanistan suddenly steps down

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Central Asia

Afghan government workers face sack, jail after smartphone ban begins

Employees will be available only ‘via telephone calls and email’, an official says, citing an order from the supreme leader.

A man uses smartphones in Kabul on Tuesday. Photo: EPA
Afghanistan

‘Frightened’: Afghan women detained by Taliban in clothing crackdown

‘I saw two employees – one was carrying a whip – putting two women who were not wearing burkas into a vehicle’.

Afghanistan

New Taliban law in Afghanistan implies that child marriage is permitted, UN says

UN says the new family code tacitly permits union with minors, despite Kabul claiming forced weddings are banned.

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United States

Taliban, Congo? Afghans stuck in Qatar who helped US war face more stress

After reports the US could send 1,100 Afghans who assisted the US to the DRC, the Taliban urged them to instead head back to their homeland.

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A woman carries a child as they arrive in Qatar with other evacuees from Afghanistan in 2021, following the US withdrawal. Photo: AFP
Afghanistan

Afghan mother demands answers after son dies in Pakistani hospital bombing

Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the March 16 strike on a drug treatment centre that killed 411.

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Central Asia

Afghanistan wants US$10 billion in trade deals with Central Asia

Central Asia’s typical trade routes through Russia are hampered by heavy sanctions, while the Taliban is trying to trade with the world despite international sanctions.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan releases detained US citizen after more than a year

Researcher Dennis Coyle, 64, was arrested in January 2025 on ‘violations of Afghanistan’s applicable laws’.

US citizen Dennis Coyle (middle) waits at the airport in Kabul on Tuesday after the Taliban released him. Photo: AFP
Pakistan

Pakistan announces 5-day pause on Afghan strikes for Eid

The temporary ceasefire comes after Monday’s hospital strike, the deadliest in an escalating conflict between the two neighbours.

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An Afghan man walks next to the site where a drug rehabilitation centre was destroyed in an air strike in Kabul on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
War and conflict

Video | Survivors recount deadly air strike on Kabul drug rehab hospital

Afghanistan says 400 killed In hospital strike, Pakistan denies targeting civilian sites.

Afghanistan

‘People were burning’: 400 dead after Pakistan strikes hit Kabul hospital

Pakistan rejected the accusation, saying its air strikes on eastern Afghanistan did not hit any civilian sites.

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War and conflict

Opinion | Pakistan’s forever war and the politics of exhaustion

What Pakistan needs is not war with Afghanistan but urgent efforts to fix its economy, security and divided society after disruptive decades.

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People gather around the coffin of an army soldier, killed in the border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces, during a funeral prayer in a village in Lakki Marwat, a district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 28. Photo: AP
Pakistan

Blasts in Kabul as Afghan government says responding to Pakistan attacks

Diplomatic efforts have failed to secure a truce between Pakistan and the Taliban, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged in efforts to halt the fighting.

Taliban security personnel stand guard near the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Nangarhar province on Friday. Photo: AFP
Pakistan

‘Managed escalation’: Pakistan-Taliban stand-off enters dangerous new phase

With positions entrenched, mediation efforts by regional powers are unlikely to deliver a swift breakthrough, observers say.

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Pakistan

China seeks to mediate after Pakistan declares ‘open war’ on Afghanistan

Beijing calls on Islamabad and Kabul to stay calm and exercise restraint as relations between the neighbours plummet.

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Pakistan

Pakistan declares ‘open war’ with Afghan Taliban, attacks Kabul, Kandahar

The air strikes came hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban government said was retaliation.

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Taliban security personnel stand guard near the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday. Photo: AFP
Pakistan

Pakistan claim of killing 80 militants ‘false’, Taliban security source says

The Afghan Defence Ministry said ‘various civilian areas’ in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrasa and multiple homes.

Afghanistan

61 die in Afghanistan, 110 injured, amid heavy snow and rain

The death toll could rise, authorities say, amid checks of affected regions and with over 450 homes completely or partially destroyed.

Central Asia

Why are Afghan-Tajikistan border tensions such a headache for China?

A suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul is just the latest sign of how Chinese citizens can become caught up in the region’s instability.

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A Chinese man and at least six Afghans were killed in a restaurant bombing in central Kabul on Monday. Photo: AFP
Afghanistan

Video | Resistance museum changes under Taliban rule

The museum no longer has a ‘hall of fame’ gallery featuring portraits of mujahideen commanders, including some who fought against the ruling Taliban.

This photograph taken on January 6, 2026 shows a diorama depicting the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion of 1979, with figurines of Afghan mujahideen fighters plastered for censorship at the Manzar-e-Jahad or the Jihad Museum in Herat. An Afghan who fought against Soviet forces still visits a museum celebrating the resistance, but, in keeping with rules by the Taliban authorities, the displays have undergone notable changes recently. When the museum opened in 2010, the figurines showed the faces of these women and men; now those faces are covered in plaster. The Taliban government, which took power for the second time in 2021, has banned depictions of living things under its strict interpretation of Islamic law. In 2024 the government’s morality police ordered the rule’s gradual nationwide enforcement. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP) / TO GO WITH ‘AFGHANISTAN-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-HISTORY-MUSEUM’ REPORTAGE
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Afghanistan: All stories

China urges Taliban to tighten security after suicide attack on restaurant in Kabul

Militant group Isis-K claimed responsibility for the attack in the Afghan capital, says it has placed Chinese nationals on its target list.

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Central Asia

Afghan boy, 13, executes family’s killer in echoes of worst days of Taliban rule

The public execution, the 11th carried out since the Taliban seized power in 2021, has drawn global condemnation.

Gun violence in the US

National Guard shooting suspect pleads not guilty to murder from hospital bed

The judge ordered Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, held in custody without bond, citing the ‘sheer terror’ of the fatal ambush in Washington.

Tributes are seen on Tuesday at the scene where two National Guard members were shot in Washington. Photo: EPA
Gun violence in the US

Trump orders review of immigrant visas after National Guard attack

The sweeping new policy follows Wednesday’s attack in Washington by an Afghan national that has caused one death.

A makeshift memorial in Washington a day after two National Guard members were shot. Photo: Reuters
Gun violence in the US

National Guard member dies as Afghan attacker’s past CIA link emerges

Shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal is a former member of a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit who entered the US under a special programme.

Pakistan

Can mediators prevent war between Afghanistan, Pakistan as tensions spike?

Prolonged proxy warfare could create space for terrorist groups such as Isis-K to regenerate and plot overseas attacks, analysts warn.

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