Afghanistan

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In this Dec. 14, 2019, file photo, jailed Talibans are seen after an interview with The Associated Press inside the Pul-e-Charkhi jail in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File) **FILE**

Afghan Taliban confirms release of 1st government prisoners

By RAHIM FAIEZ - Associated Press

Pakistani army says 7 militants, 2 troops killed in shootout

By ABDUL SATTAR - Associated Press

Afghan National Army soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint near the Bagram base in northern Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. An Afghan official said Wednesday that the country has released 100 Taliban prisoners from Bagram, claiming they are part of 5,000 detainees who are to be freed under a deal between insurgents and U.S. But the Taliban says they have yet to verify those released were on the list they had handed over to Washington during negotiations. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan government releases 100 Taliban prisoners

By Lauren Toms - The Washington Times

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 18, 2020 file photo, thousands of Afghan refugees walk as they enter Afghanistan at the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran, in the western Herat Province. Some 200,000 Afghans and counting have returned from Iran to their home country after losing their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic or out of fear of getting infected. They are flowing across the border from a country that has one of the world's worst outbreak to an impoverished nation that is woefully unprepared to deal with the virus. (AP Photo/Hamed Sarfarazi, File)

From Iran’s hot zone, Afghans flee home, spreading virus

By TAMEEM AKHGAR - Associated Press

FILE - In this Feb. 29, 2020 file photo, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader sign a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar. The Taliban in a statement Sunday, April 5, 2020, said that a peace deal they signed with the United States is near breaking point accusing Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while chastising the Afghan government for dithering on the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, promised in the agreement. (AP Photo/Hussein Sayed, File)

Taliban warn peace deal with US near breaking point

By KATHY GANNON - Associated Press

UN Security Council urges cease-fire in Afghanistan

By EDITH M. LEDERER - Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, stands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 23, 2020. Pompeo was in Kabul on an urgent visit Monday to try to move forward a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes despite the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when world leaders and statesmen are curtailing official travel. (Afghan Presidential Palace via AP)

Wave of Taliban attacks raise peace deal concerns

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

An Afghan security forces member looks at a damaged vehicle after an bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 30, 2020. A sticky bomb attached to the vehicle detonated, according to Firdaus Faramraz, spokesman for the Kabul police chief. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Afghan officials say Taliban attacks kill 11 troops, police

By RAHIM FAIEZ - Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, stands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 23, 2020. Pompeo was in Kabul on an urgent visit Monday to try to move forward a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes despite the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when world leaders and statesmen are curtailing official travel. (Afghan Presidential Palace via AP)

Political turmoil in Kabul dogs negotiations with Taliban

By KATHY GANNON and TAMEEM AKHGAR - Associated Press

Afghan Sikh men mourn their beloved ones during a funeral procession for those who were killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged through a Sikh house of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020. An explosive device disrupted Thursday's funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan's Sikh minority community, killed in an attack by the Islamic State group on their house of worship in the heart of the capital. (AP Photo/Tamana Sarwary)

Bomb disrupts funeral for 25 Sikhs killed in Afghan capital

By TAMEEM AKHGAR - Associated Press

Afghan personnel arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. Gunmen stormed a religious gathering of Afghanistan's minority Sikhs in their place of worship in the heart of the Afghan capital's old city on Wednesday, a minority Sikh parliamentarian said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Islamic State gunman kills 25 in attack on Sikhs in Kabul

By TAMEEM AKHGAR and RAHIM FAIEZ - Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, stands with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, center, and first Vice President Amrullah Saleh, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, March 23, 2020. Pompeo was in Kabul on an urgent visit Monday to try to move forward a U.S. peace deal signed last month with the Taliban, a trip that comes despite the coronavirus pandemic, at a time when world leaders and statesmen are curtailing official travel. (Afghan Presidential Palace via AP)

Ashraf Ghani, Afghan president, shows no sign of bending to pressure after U.S. aid cut

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

FILE - In this, Sunday, March 15, 2020 file photo, a medical staff member works on setting up an isolation room at a coronavirus quarantine ward at a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. In conflict zones across the Middle East, the specter of the coronavirus looms large. Authorities in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip warn that health care systems gutted by years of war and unrest have left millions of people doubly vulnerable to the pandemic. For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

Ravaged by war, Middle Eastern countries face a new scourge

By ISABEL DEBRE - Associated Press

Under an Afghan presidential decree, 1,500 Taliban prisoners are to be released as a goodwill gesture to get intra-Afghan negotiations started. (Associated Press/File)

Ashraf Ghani delays Afghanistan’s Taliban prisoner release

By Mike Glenn - The Washington Times

Yazan, 1, has his oxygen mask removed after his heart surgery at the Tajoura National Heart Center in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 27, 2020. Yazan's perilous trek from his small desert hometown culminated in a five-hour surgery. He is one of 1,000 children treated by Dr. William Novick's group since it first came to Libya after the 2011 uprising. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Afghan government postpones prisoner release, endangers deal

By RAHIM FAIEZ - Associated Press

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, left, walks to a House Armed Services hearing, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 10, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) ** FILE **

Taliban attacks ‘still too high’ in wake of peace deal, CENTCOM chief says

By Lauren Toms - The Washington Times

Dove Grenade Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

Taliban’s inability to control Afghanistan’s ISIS insurgency problem

By Gary Anderson

In this Monday, March 9, 2020, photo, Afghanistan's Abdullah Abdullah, front left, greets his supporters after being sworn in as president in Kabul, Afghanistan. Washington moved forward Tuesday on its peace deal with the Taliban, launching its troop withdrawal, while praising Afghanistan's newly installed President Ashraf Ghani's promise to proceed with a Taliban prisoner release as well as cobble together a team to start negotiations with the insurgent group. But the dueling presidential inaugurations a day earlier with Ghani's rival, Abdullah Abdullah also being sworn in as president is indicative of the uphill task facing Washington's peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad as he tries to get Afghanistan's bickering leadership to come together. (AP Photo)

Afghans set to release 1,500 Taliban; US wants less violence

By RAHIM FAIEZ and TAMEEM AKHGAR - Associated Press

In this photo provided by the United Nations, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, foreground left, delivers the keynote speech at an event entitled &quot;Group of Friends of Afghanistan,&quot; Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at United Nations headquarters. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations. (Manuel Elias/The United Nations via AP)

Hillary Clinton: Any Afghan peace talks must include women

By EDITH M. LEDERER - Associated Press

In this April 14, 2018, file photo, then-Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth Franklin "Frank" McKenzie Jr. speaks during a media availability at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Taliban has driven ISIS out of eastern Afghanistan with ‘very limited’ U.S. support: Pentagon

By Lauren Toms - The Washington Times