KABUL - Iranian guards shot dead 10 Afghan migrants illegally trying to cross the border from the western province of Herat, officials in Kabul said Sunday.Thousands of Afghans cross illegally into Iran every year to seek work as Afghanistan’s economy struggles to grow amid insurgency that ...

Lucy Morgan Edwards This week the defence select committee published a report which concluded that civil war in Afghanistan is likely when international forces leave next year. If the predictions of Securing the Future of Afghanistan are correct, the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence share ...

KABUL (Reuters/AFP) - A top Afghan peace negotiator said Tuesday he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Taliban and that all sides now realised a military solution to the war was not possible. Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai also told Reuters that the Kabul ...

WASHINGTON  - Afghan authorities have made little effort to stem the flow of billions of dollars in cash from the Kabul airport despite a US-led effort to curb laundering, a US government report said Tuesday. An earlier US study estimated that $4.5 billion in cash was taken out of Afghanistan ...

HERAT  - Hundreds of angry demonstrators tried to storm the Iranian consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat on Sunday in protest at the alleged killing of Afghan immigrants by Iranian security forces.The 200-strong crowd threw rocks and broke consulate windows before security forces ...

JALALABAD (AFP) - Student demonstrators on Monday demanded that an Afghan soldier sentenced to death for killing five French soldiers be spared execution. A military court last week rejected an appeal by the soldier, Abdul Sabor, and the Afghan authorities have since executed 14 death row prisoners ...

A roadside bomb planted by Taliban insurgents killed 17 civilians -- mostly women and children -- on their way to a wedding party in western Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.The victims were travelling in a minibus from one village to another for the celebrations when the explosion ripped ...

KABUL (AFP) - A young woman grabs the microphone and yells: “Listen to the new generation of Afghans!” In the crowd throngs of young men leap about, shaking their fists. On this October night, Kabul awakens to rock ‘n’ roll. The timing of a unique rock festival held in Kabul ...

KABUL  - Afghanistan’s senate voted to cut the word “friendship” from a pact with France because Islamic texts say it cannot be used to describe relations between Muslims and infidels, senators said Tuesday.France, which has seen 88 of its troops killed as part of the Nato ...

KABUL  - Afghanistan's defence ministry has expressed concern over the slow pace of developing its airforce ahead of a scheduled withdrawal of Nato troops and equipment, the government said Sunday.More than a dozen transport aircraft provided to the Afghan airforce by the US have been grounded ...

KANDAHAR (AFP) - Hundreds of Afghan protesters blocked highways in two separate demonstrations on Tuesday, accusing US-led NATO troops of killing children and civilians, officials and witnesses said.In the first demonstration, protesters carrying the bodies of four children aged eight to 12 blocked ...

KABUL - Afghanistan and the United States signed a deal on special forces operations in the insurgency-wracked country Sunday putting Afghans in charge of controversial night raids. Night operations by international special forces against insurgent hideouts have triggered popular anger and been a ...

WASHINGTON - The United States and Afghanistan are close to clinching an agreement that will give Kabul more authority over night-time raids, resolving an issue that threatened to derail negotiations on a long-term US military presence, US officials said late Tuesday.“An agreement is days ...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has brushed aside criticism of his decision to issue a formal apology for the burning of holy Quran on a US military base in Afghanistan, saying the move helped "calmed things down" after the incident sparked off violence across the country. "I think the reason ...

KABUL - Half a million Afghans displaced by war have been left homeless and struggling to survive because of government and international neglect, Amnesty International said Thursday.Around 400 people join makeshift shelters around the country every day, Amnesty said in a report entitled ...

BAGRAM  - Protesters hurling petrol bombs and firing slingshots besieged the largest US-run military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday, furious over reports that Nato troops burned copies of the Holy Quran.The enraged crowd shouted “Death to Americans” and “Death to ...

SHARJAH - Afghanistan couldn't have picked a worse time to meet Pakistan in its first ever one-day international against a Test-playing team on Friday. Pakistan is charged up and in high confidence coming off an historic first whitewash of England in a Test series. This one-dayer is serving as a ...

KABUL  - A roadside bomb killed four civilians in Afghanistan’s southern prov-ince of Uruzgan Friday, the provincial head of the criminal investigation unit said.Also in the volatile south, a member of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force was killed by an IED (improvised ...

KABUL (AFP) - Five young people have died of alcohol poisoning after drinking ethanol at a wedding party in the Afghan capital, an official said Sunday. Another seven are in a critical condition in hospital after the party on Friday night, said Kabul's criminal investigation chief Mohammad Zahir. ...

KABUL (Reuters/AFP) - Hundreds of Afghans marched through Kabul on Thursday, the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the US military campaign in Afghanistan, to condemn the United States as occupiers and demand the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops. About 300 men and women gathered early in ...

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (AFP) - Nine civilians including five children have been killed by a roadside mine as they herded cattle in northwest Afghanistan, police said Saturday. The incident took place in Faryab province, which borders Turkmenistan, late Friday and again highlights the dangers civilians face ...

PANJSHIR VALLEY (AFP) - Nato troops on Sunday handed control of the Panjshir valley, a fiercely anti-Taliban province, to Afghan forces in the last of a series of security transitions. Panjshir, around 130 km northeast of the capital Kabul, is one of Afghanistans most peaceful regions and the ...

ISLAMABAD (APP) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repatriated 5,359 Afghans refugees families to their home country during March 1 to June 27. According to a spokesman for UNHCR, the agency resumed its voluntary repatriation programme on March 1 via Quetta and ...

OUR STAFF REPORTERT ISLAMABAD - Afghanistan's cricket team flew to Islamabad on Monday to play three one-day matches against the hosts' second side, ending Pakistan's two-year pariah status as an international host. Afghanistan are the first foreign squad to tour Pakistan since militants attacked ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Afghanistan's central bank expects an Islamic banking law to be enacted by September, drawing billions in deposits from citizens wary of the conventional banking system, a senior official said. The central bank's sharia board will meet Sunday to finalize the law, said Muhammed ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghans are more pessimistic about the direction of their country, less confident in the ability of the US and its allies to provide security and more willing to negotiate with the Taliban than they were a year ago, a poll conducted in all of Afghanistans 34 provinces showed. ...

KABUL (AFP) - Branches of Afghanistans biggest private bank were crowded Saturday with government employees queuing to be paid and customers wanting to withdraw their money following corruption allegations. Kabul Bank has been the subject of US newspaper reports alleging large-scale corruption by ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Afghans in a southern Taliban stronghold remain skeptical of the Kabul government and of US-led troops waging an offensive there, a US military commander said on Thursday. Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of US Marines in southern Afghanistan, said the population of ...

PESHAWAR (Online) The law enforcement agencies have started investigation against the Afghans having Indian passports while also started to monitor the trade and travel activities of Afghan refugees in tribal and settled areas. Sources revealed that the operation started after the FIA and other ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Muslim groups reacted angrily Wednesday after it emerged that the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were using rifle sights inscribed with coded Biblical references. The company producing the sights, which are also used to train Afghan and Iraqi soldiers under contracts with ...