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A former mayor from Utah who has served in the state’s National Guard since 2013 was identified Saturday as the U.S. service member who was killed in an “insider attack” in Afghanistan earlier in the day, according to reports. Brent Taylor, a married father of seven children who was deployed to Afghanistan in January, was a former mayor of North Ogden, a city of about 17,000 people located about 46 miles north of Salt Lake City. Taylor resigned from the mayor's office before he went overseas, the Standard-Examiner of Ogden reported. Taylor’s death was confirmed by North Ogden City Councilman...

Brent Taylor, North Ogden mayor and a major in Utah's Army National Guard, was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday.

Former fighter pilot Lang Sias, the Republican pick for Colorado lieutenant governor, called out Jared Polis Friday over a televised misstatement about the National Guard. On KUSA-9News’ Next with Kyle Clark program Thursday, the Democratic nominee for governor said he wouldn’t give President Trump access to Colorado Army National Guard troops to send to the U.S.-Mexico border if he thinks it’s politically motivated. “You could use the same rational to not allow someone to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq,” Clark said to Polis. “Is that dangerous?” Polis replied: “Well, it wouldn’t be Colorado National Guard units going to Afghanistan or...

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A Muslim cleric known as the 'Father of the Taliban' has been assassinated in Pakistan. Sami ul-Haq, who earned the name for having taught some of the Afghan Islamist movement's leaders, was killed on Friday although details are not yet clear. The religious scholar's son Maulana Hamidul Haq said Sami had been stabbed to death in his room, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. But his nephew and a deputy said unknown attackers had shot the prominent cleric, who runs an Islamic school in northwestern Pakistan.

Iranian officials, in a first, have admitted to facilitating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. by secretly aiding the free travel of al Qaeda operatives who eventually went on to fly commercial airliners into the Twin Towers in New York City, according to new remarks from a senior Iranian official. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in the Iran's judiciary, disclosed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television that Iranian intelligence officials secretly helped provide the al Qaeda attackers with passage and gave them refuge in the Islamic Republic, according to an English translation published by Al Arabiya.

Federal authorities are probing the devices sent to people who are prominent Democrats or supporters of Democrats.... CIA Director Gina Haspel has had a face to face meeting with President Trump after hearing the audio recording of the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi during her visit to Turkey. Russia's Deputy Defense Minister says the United States coordinated an attack by 13 drones on a Russian airbase in Syria last January..... An Afghan Taliban leader has been freed from prison in Afghanistan....... At least fourteen children were injured in a knife attack in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing..... The Egyptian...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The three top officials in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province were killed when their own guards opened fire on them at a security conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said, and a Taliban spokesman said the target was Washington’s top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO. Agha Lala Dastageri, Kandahar’s deputy provincial governor, said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Raziq was among the dead, along with Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa, who died of his wounds at a nearby hospital. Dastageri said provincial intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin also died inside the governor’s...

A retired Army general said in an interview Thursday that if anyone can bring the 17-year-long Afghanistan war to an end, it's President Trump. "Based on his success in dealing with some fairly hard characters — [North Korean leader] Kim Jong [Un], China, some others — if anybody can do it, President Trump can," retired Maj. Gen. Gary Harrell told Hill.TV's Buck Sexton on "Rising." Harrell, a former Delta Force commander in Afghanistan who retired in 2008 after nearly 35 years in service, also praised Gen. Scott Miller, the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. "I think...

At the top of the news the latest on Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A "candid discussion" was reported in Saudi Arabia between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi officials including King Salman. President Trump spoke by phone with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He says both the king and crown prince have denied any involvement or knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi. Trump told the Associated Press that Saudi Arabia was being treated as: "guilty until proven innocent"..... Turkish officials say their search of the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi disappeared after entering October 2nd revealed more evidence of...

The humanitarian superpower Sweden has once again shown that it has no problem giving one vulnerable person preference over another when deciding whom to expel and who should be allowed to stay for humanitarian purposes. When Denis was only 5 years old, his mother was found dead in an apartment in Södertälje. As his Ukrainian father has renounced custody, he is now an orphan. Now the Swedish Migration Agency has decided that he will be expelled to Ukraine all by himself. There, he will probably end up in an orphanage since he has no family there who can take care...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.. Across the Middle East,...

The Pentagon identified the U.S. service member killed in action in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Thursday as Spc. James A. Slape. The 23-year-old from Morehead City, N.C., died of injuries from an improvised explosive device, the Pentagon said in a statement. Slape was assigned to 60th Troop Command, North Carolina Army National Guard, Washington, N.C.

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A Saudi-owned newspaper has claimed that Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has moved to Afghanistan via Iranian territories. Quoting Pakistani security and other extremist group sources, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that Baghdadi arrived in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan after crossing Iranian territories via the eastern city of Zahedan. According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, IS manages a location to host its fighters in Zahedan in cooperation with the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Al-Baghdadi has been reported killed or wounded on a number of occasions. Last month, Baghdadi was reported to be...

Colonel William Connor has revealed the secrets of life on the frontline with the Prince in 2007 and 2008, when the royal served in Helmand Province as a British cavalry officer during sustained fierce fighting with anti-government forces. The South Carolina National Guardsman, an Army Ranger veteran, snapped pictures with the Prince - but also ran for cover along with him when they came under missile fire at the austere operating base they called home, and shared Christmas dinner in a mess hall just a few hundred yards from enemy lines. The American officer told DailyMailTV that the Prince met...

Secret KGB documents reveal just how deeply involved the Soviet Union was in the spilling of Israeli blood. The Russian spy agency provided Palestinian terror organizations with funds, training and arms, running agents like 'Krotov' - aka Mahmoud Abbas, 'Aref' - or Yasser Arafat, and 'Nationalist,' who was behind several plane hijackings long before 9/11. The genesis of the KGB’s developing ties with Palestinian terror organizations can be traced back to the end of the 1960s. The two most important KGB recruitments from the PLO during the second half of the 1970s were of people who still play a major...

Powerful Hurricane Florence continues to move towards landfall Friday on the coast of the Carolinas with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. The storm is now centered 530 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina.... Russia wants the United States and its allies to reveal their intentions in Syria. This was the message from Russian UN representative Vasily Nebenzya at the UN Security Council Tuesday.... The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against "new dangerous steps" in Syria.... And in Syria itself the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation says a fake chemical attack is being recorded on video..... Russian President...

The Soviet-Afghan War changed the world. This nine-year power struggle in a small, landlocked country ultimately led to some of the most profound moments in modern history. This one conflict sparked the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of Osama bin Laden, the age of jihadist terrorism, and the birth of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In time, the ripples of the Soviet-Afghan War brought the Twin Towers to the ground, brought American troops to the Middle East, and created a new era of wars and terrorism that plague the world today...

Two Afghan men have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a German man in a fight in the eastern town of Köthen, German police announced. The circumstances of the man’s death remain unclear. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Köthen in eastern Germany on Sunday, moving in silence towards the playground, where a 22-year-old German man died following a clash with two Afghans. READ MORE: New Rally to Be Held in Chemnitz as German Citizen Dies in Clash With Afghans Even though the mayor of the town, Bernd Hauschild urged locals to steer clear of the demonstration, police...

The Administration has determined after careful review that the office of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington should close. We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017. However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel. To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government...