Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Mark Esper sought a firsthand assessment Sunday of the U.S. military’s future role in America’s longest war as he made his initial visit to Afghanistan as Pentagon chief. Stalled peace talks with the Taliban and unrelenting attacks by the insurgent group and Islamic State militants have complicated the Trump administration’s pledge to withdraw more than 5,000 American troops.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — While President Donald Trump insists he’s bringing home Americans from “endless wars” in the Mideast, his Pentagon chief says all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the American military will continue operations against the Islamic State group.

KABUL (Reuters) - Police and local people searched on Saturday for more bodies in the rubble of a mosque in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province after bomb blasts in which at least 69 people were killed during Friday prayers.

The explosives were placed inside the mosque in Jawdara area of Haska Mena district.

Sohrab Qaderi, a member of Nangarhar’s provincial council, said the mosque, with capacity of more than 150 worshippers at a time, was full of people when the bombs exploded.

KABUL, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two Taliban militants were killed and six suspects arrested during a night raid operation in Afghanistan's eastern Wardak province, a statement said Saturday.

"The successful raid was launched by a Special Unit of National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Ghozba village, Jaghato district Friday night. The arrested people were handed over to a related department for questioning," NDS, the country national intelligence agency, said in the statement.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on mosque attack in eastern Afghanistan (all times local):

12:45 a.m.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is strongly condemning the attack inside a mosque during Friday prayers in eastern Afghanistan which killed scores of civilians and injured dozens more.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday that “those responsible for this attack must be held accountable.”

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Oct 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A total of six insurgents, affiliated with the Daesh group, were killed, as an unmanned plane struck the militants’ hideout in Pachir Agam district, of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, said an army statement released here today (Friday).

According to the statement, the drone strike was conducted on Thursday afternoon and targeted the hardliner group’s hideout in Suliman Khil area of the restive district, killing six armed militants on the spot.

KABUL, Oct 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Anti-government militants blew up power pylon in Salang district of Afghanistan’s eastern Parwan province, and left Kabul in darkness, provincial police spokesman, Mohammad Salim Nuri, said today (Wednesday).

“Taliban militants detonated a pylon in Salang district, some 70 km north of Kabul early Wednesday, and thus left Kabul in darkness,” Nuri said.

Islamabad, Oct 7 (PTI) The Afghan Taliban said it has freed three Indian engineers held hostage for over a year in an exchange for securing the release of 11 of its members, including some high-ranking officials of the militant group, according to media reports on Monday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two Taliban officials refused to say who the militant group exchanged the prisoners with and whether the freed Taliban members were being held by Afghan authorities or US forces in Afghanistan, The Express Tribune reported.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan National Police have arrested 11 Taliban militants in the country's southern Kandahar province, local police said Monday.

"The ANP launched several raids in separate locations of Kandahar province, arresting 11 members of Taliban militant group within the past week," Jamal Barakzai, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

Seven of the arrestees were responsible for a string of targeted attacks against government officials and off-duty security forces in Kandahar.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban met with a U.S. envoy in the Pakistani capital, a Taliban official said Saturday, the first such encounter since President Donald Trump announced a month ago that a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan’s 18-year war was dead.