Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Afghan people marked the 30th withdrawal anniversary of former Soviet Union troops from the war-ravaged country on Friday.

In a gathering held at the Presidential Palace, participants including former resistance leaders paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for jihad, or holy war, against the invading forces to defend their country's freedom.

Government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said that the current achievements in the past decades were the results of the struggle of the people of Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Pentagon’s top official made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Monday to meet with U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders amid a push for peace with the Taliban.

Pat Shanahan, the recently installed acting secretary of defense, said he has no orders to reduce the U.S. troop presence, although officials say that is at the top of the Taliban’s list of demands in exploratory peace negotiations.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 Afghan soldiers and eight Taliban militants were killed following clashes in northern province of Kunduz overnight, a local source said.

"Fresh clashes erupted in Talawla, an area on northern outskirts of provincial capital Kunduz city at midnight after Taliban militants stormed security checkpoints. The clashes also caused five soldiers and several militants injured," the source told Xinhua anonymously.

Ghazni, Jan 22; AFP: At least 65 people were killed in a Taliban-claimed attack on an Afghan intelligence base, security sources said Tuesday, raising the toll substantially from 12 announced previously.

Militants detonated a vehicle packed with explosives at the training facility before gunmen arrived in a car and opened fire.

"We took about 65 bodies out of the rubble yesterday," Mohammad Sardar Bakhyari, deputy head of the provincial council in Wardak province, where the attack occurred on Monday in the latest blow to beleaguered security forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A coordinated Taliban assault on a military base and police training center in eastern Afghanistan on Monday morning killed at least 12 and wounded over 30 people, provincial officials said.

Salem Asgherkhail, head of the area’s public health department, said that most of those killed in the attack in Maidan Wardak province were military personnel. Some of the wounded were taken to provincial hospitals for treatment while the more serious cases were sent to the capital, Kabul.

KABUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 people were confirmed dead in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours as government forces and Taliban militants stepped up fighting in the war-battered country, officials said Sunday.

Taliban militants targeted a security checkpoint in Karji area outside Farah city, capital of western Farah province on Sunday, killing five security personnel and injuring a few others, deputy to provincial council Shah Mahmoud Naemi said.

06 Jan 2019; DW: At least 30 people were killed and seven injured on Sunday when a gold mine collapsed in northeastern Afghanistan, officials said.

The victims were villagers who were mining for gold illegally, according to officials in Badakhshan province. The villagers had dug a 60-meter (200-foot) deep shaft in a river bed and were inside when a landslide caused it to cave in.

About 50 miners were inside when the incident occurred during heavy snowfall. Two rescue teams have been deployed to the scene.

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. /TASS/. The death toll in the Kabul attack at government offices has reached 43 people, Xinhua reported on Tuesday citing Afghanistan's Healthcare Ministry.

Earlier reports said 27 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack. Xinhua said 10 more people were injured.

At least 10 people were killed after a massive blast outside a British security company's compound in Kabul late Wednesday, officials said, with the attack claimed by the Taliban in the latest violence to target the Afghan capital.

The interior ministry and police both said the blast had been a car bomb targeting a compound which houses G4S, a private British security company, in east Kabul.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the U.S. military said, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in the last 17 months.

The military said that three other service members were wounded when the bomb went off near the city of Ghazni. An American contractor was also wounded, it said. The military did not immediately identify any of the casualties.

Lt. Ubon Mendie, a military spokesman, said the wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care.