US Marines have returned to Afghanistan’s southernmost Helmand province, which is mostly controlled by the Taliban. The Marines withdrew from the area in October of 2014, and the security situation there has deteriorating over the years. The province saw some of the worst fighting in the earlier years of the US-led occupation. NATO says its…
It was just recently that the United States deployed its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) weapon against alleged tunnels belonging to the Islamic State terrorist organization in Afghanistan. The strike was meant to project US strength amid an increasingly challenged and contracting “international order.” However, striking a terrorist organization’s tunnel complex in a country the organization…
Afghanistan’s defense minister and army chief of staff have resigned following a deadly Taliban attack on a military base in the north of the country. The resignations come just ahead of a visit by US Defense Secretary James Mattis. Defence Minister Abdullah Habibi & Army Chief of Staff Qadam Shah Shahim stepped down with immediate…
Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran are all in favor of direct talks with Taliban leadership while India is reluctant to support such a move fearing it may legitimize the insurgents. The Kremlin’s appointment of Zamir Kabulov as presidential envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and head of the Russian foreign ministry’s Asia and Middle East department…
The Taliban Islamic fundamentalist movement has published a ‘report’, which determines various regions of Afghanistan, controlled by the group, as well as contested territories and areas that are under the influence of the Afghan government. The report, entitled ‘Percent of Country under the control of Mujahideen’, was published on the Voice of Jihad website, which…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a conflict in possession of no military solution must be in want of more troops. Or so one would think from the recommendations on how to succeed in Afghanistan made by Gen. John Nicholson, the force commander in Afghanistan; Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of Central Command; and Republican…
