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Afghanistan’s internal insecurity, border tensions, and the potentially Pakistani-backed US military factor are combining to create yet another storm in the New Cold War that threatens to destabilize the region. Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine and the US-led West’s unprecedented response to it have distracted the international community from Afghanistan, which is once again becoming an issue of regional concern. The foreign occupiers’ chaotic evacuation from that country last August and the Taliban’s return to power in the aftermath haven’t stabilized the situation all that much. The group is still designated as terrorists by most of the world...

The situation at Kabul international airport is "tenuous", and US officials are considering evacuating all Americans and leaving Afghans behind, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner. The decision to abandon Afghan allies has not yet been made, said CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin, but it is "on the table" and will be explored if American troops cannot take control of the airport.

BREAKING: The U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul has engaged in a "policy or practice" that allows government officials to rape & molest little boys inside "government compounds" w impunity, according to new Pentagon IG report. The practice is called bacha bazi or "boy play"

The U.S. government has collected persuasive intelligence that the Taliban do not intend to honor the promises they have made in the recently signed deal with the United States, three American officials tell NBC News, undercutting what has been days of hopeful talk by President Donald Trump and his top aides.

More civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2018 than any other year since the U.S. started fighting there in 2001. The United Nations released a report that said there were 3,804 civilian deaths in 2018, an 11 percent increase from 2017. Of those deaths, 927, or about 25 percent, were children up to age 17. It said 7,189 civilians were injured last year in the armed conflict.

An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban — and a plot to carry out a terror attack somewhere in North America — was caught last fall after being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, an incident sure to further inflame the debate over national security risks at the border. The Afghan national’s alleged terror ties were not initially flagged in a terror database – and as a result, not initially reported – when the incident first came to light last November, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who obtained Homeland Security documents on the incident. It was only later...

NEW YORK -- An Afghan man's heroism inspired a movie as he risked it all to save in American, but he himself has become the one in need, CBS News York reports. Mohammed Gulab is a simple Afghan villager, but he is as brave a hero as there is. Just ask Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose life Gulab saved at great personal peril. "He very well could have just left me laying there on the side of that waterfall and let me die," Luttrell said. "But he didn't."

A grieving Afghan mother took bloody revenge on the Taliban militants who gunned down her son, killing 25 and injuring five of them during a seven hour gun battle. Reza Gul watched helplessly as her son died while he manned a village checkpoint with his small team of police officers in the lawless Farah province. But flanked by her daughter and daughter-in-law, she led a counter strike on his attackers killing 25 militants and wounding another five during a ferocious seven hour gun battle. 'I couldn't stop myself and picked up a weapon,' Gul told TOLO News. 'I went to...

"At least a dozen guys just walked off their posts" in Afghanistan since 2009 for a variety of reasons, said an experienced soldier, one of four Afghan war veterans familiar with the incidents who spoke to ABC News. The other sources estimated the number could be more than a dozen.

FULL TITLE: Afghan minicab driver tied up his pregnant mistress and aborted 19-week-old foetus using tablets he bought online An Afghani minicab driver who tied his pregnant mistress up then forced poisonous pills into her womb in order to abort his unwanted child has been jailed for six years. Ahmed Raofi, 29, became enraged when lover Irene Santos refused to terminate their unborn child, so he hatched a plan to kill the foetus without her consent. After hours of internet research, Raofi bought packets Misoprostol online and invited Ms Santos to his flat in Edgware, northwest London, on April 9,...

(Reuters) - Taliban fighters attacked part of a U.S. military outpost in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Monday, officials said, less than a week after targeting a Polish base in a nearby province. Attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians have also mounted this week killing dozens and adding to fears the drawdown of foreign troops, most of whom are due to leave the country by the end of next year, is allowing insurgents to regain lost territory. "In a parking lot used by Americans there was a huge blast and after that a massive attack... A number...

But for work in a war zone, Lockheed modified the K-1200 to operate via remote control—because, with a couple of tons worth of cargo swaying beneath it, the K-1200 isn't particularly quick or nimble. By removing the pilot, and necessary interfaces and life support systems, the autonomous K-1200 can fly higher and with more and heavier loads than any other helicopter in service.

One phrase that always comes up in the administration's (AFGAN) strategy sessions is "PUBLIC OPTION," one participant told McClatchy . White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida , U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy

WASHINGTON -- Don Ayala heard the explosion and saw the flames shoot into the sky above the narrow Afghan village street. Seconds later an Afghan man was running toward him, still trying to extinguish the fire on his arm. Soldiers in pursuit were yelling, "Stop that man!" and "Shoot him!" Ayala, a private security contractor, drew his weapon but didn't fire, later saying he feared hitting one of the soldiers or a member of the team of social scientists he was hired to protect. He managed to tackle the man with his free hand. The man resisted Ayala and two...

KABUL: Border fighting between Afghan and Pakistani forces has killed 13 people, including seven children, as the most serious clashes in years between the two countries extended into a second day. ... The incident is likely to inflame the already acrimonious relations between the two key US allies -- just two weeks after a reconciliation meeting between Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Turkey, where they agreed to jointly fight terrorism.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Some filed into schools to cast their ballots amid lessons still scrawled on blackboards. Others stepped over piles of shoes to vote in mosques. In remote areas, tents served as polling stations. Across Afghanistan, millions lined up at polling stations in defiance of a Taliban boycott call and militant attacks to vote for a new parliament Sunday. It was the last formal step in starting a democracy aimed at ending decades of rule by the gun. “Today is a magnificent day for Afghanistan,” said Ali Safar, 62, standing in line to vote in Kabul. “We want dignity,...

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Eleven Afghans including a former district police chief were killed on Wednesday in an attack in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, the provincial governor said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible, he said. More than 800 people have been killed in Afghanistan over the past year in a wave of violence, most of it in the south and east of the country and most of it the result of Taliban rebel attacks.