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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials said Sunday at least 34 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings that targeted a military base and a provincial chief. In eastern Ghazni province, 31 soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded when the attacker drove a military humvee full of explosives onto an army commando base before detonating the car bomb, according to an official in Afghanistan’s national security council, who spoke anonymously because he was not permitted to speak directly to the media. The attack was also confirmed by Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian, though he did not provide details...

Lt General Thomas McInerney and Lt General Michael Flynn gave interviews to WVW Broadcasting Network today. It was Flynn’s first interview since his pardon.In stunning testimony, McInerney stated his sources have told him U.S. Army Special Forces, possibly the famed Delta Force, raided the CIA-run server farm in Frankfurt, Germany. 5 soldiers were killed in the ensuing firefight, as well as one CIA paramilitary. The CIA personnel were allegedly flown in from Afghanistan for security, according to reports. Subsequent review of the secured servers yielded proof that China, Iran, and Russia were involved in the attempted coup against President Donald...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Taliban birthplace Kandahar in Afghanistan has been the scene of bloody militancy and counter-militancy as at least 15 armed insurgents have been killed and 19 others including 11 police wounded in a bomb blast and a fighting. According to an army statement released here Thursday, 15 militants have been killed and four others injured and the Taliban offensive to gain ground in Panjwayi district, Kandahar province has been repulsed. Taliban militants attacked the security checkpoints in Yarokala area of the restive Panjwayi district on Wednesday and the security forces backed by fighting planes struck...

A spokesman for the Taliban told Afghanistan’s Khaama Press in an interview published Thursday that the terrorist group’s “war against the United States will resume … until they leave Afghanistan” if Joe Biden walks back President Donald Trump’s attempts to withdraw U.S. forces from the country. Trump initiated talks including both the Taliban and the legitimate government of Afghanistan this year to come to an agreement that would result in the end of the American military presence in the country. Afghanistan is America’s longest war, launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Trump administration has...

The blast happened around 5 pm local time At least 17 people were killed when two explosions on Tuesday rocked a busy market in Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, a central region that has until now been considered the country’s safest.The blast happened around 5pm local time with provincial spokesperson Latif Azimi saying that civilians were deliberately targeted in the neighbourhood, which is home mostly to the Shia minority of Hazara people.“Local people were working and shopping in the area, many were on their way home. There wasn’t any military nearby,” he told The Telegraph.No group has yet claimed the attack, but...

American B-52s, the massive strategic bombers, arrived in the Middle East on Saturday. They are part of the Fifth Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota. These veteran, giant aircraft were last deployed in the region in May 2019 and the US Central Command says they are here to “deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.” The B-52s have been sent to the region as the US appears to be drawing down forces in Iraq. The Pentagon has said that hundreds of troops are leaving Iraq and Afghanistan. As the US seeks to end twenty years of involvement...

One of China's most significant advantages in the race to dominate future hi-tech industrial production, among just about everything else, is its chokehold on "rare earth materials" (REM). These are materials -- and the raw minerals from which they are extracted and processed -- vital to the manufacture, for instance, of advanced weapons, fossil-free alternative energy systems, communication devices, computer products, and microelectronic networks.It is an area in which China has already established dominance . The Chinese Communist Party's near monopoly on most of these 17 rare earth materials is by now a US national security vulnerability of enormous strategic...

A suicide car bomb exploded at the western entry gate of the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least three soldiers and wounding four others, an Afghan official said. The explosion on Friday targeted a government forces’ checkpoint near the gate of the capital Kabul, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. No one immediately claimed responsibility, though suspicion immediately fell on the Taliban. The attack on the army checkpoint follows weeks of violence, including an attack by gunmen earlier this month that killed 22 people, mostly students of the Kabul University. The assault was claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) armed...

Mortar shells slammed into a residential area of Afghanistan’s capital and killed eight people Saturday, hours before outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held what are likely his last meetings with the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators trying to hammer out a peace deal. The attack in Kabul, claimed by Islamic State militants, also wounded 31 people. The assault came as peace talks were underway in Qatar, where Pompeo told Afghan government negotiators that the U.S. will “sit on the side and help where we can” in the negotiations with Taliban militants. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced a sudden...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday signaled opposition to President Trump’s plan to pull more U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and he cautioned that “leaving too soon” could lead to terrorist strikes against America and its allies. In a statement, Mr. Stoltenberg said all NATO allies are eager to leave Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war, but he stressed that a withdrawal must only happen when “the time is right” on the ground. His comments come after reports that Mr. Trump will soon issue formal orders to cut the number of American forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to about...

@RepMattGaetzThe biggest loser in Afghanistan is the nation that stays the longest. This has been the longest war in America's history. Our nation is weary of it. Watch...

Sen. Ben Sasse issues statement calling for indefinite continuation of Afghanistan War, currently in its 20th year. Says to bring any troops home would be a "retreat" and "not grounded in reality." #20MoreYearsShouldDoIt https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1328807860361441281

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller on Tuesday announced a U.S. troop drawdown to 2,500 in both Afghanistan and Iraq, consistent with President Trump’s promises to bring U.S. troops home and his goal to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I am formally announcing that we will implement President Trump’s orders to continue our repositioning of forces from those two countries,” Miller said. “By January 15th, 2021, our forces, their size in Afghanistan, will be 2,500 troops. Our force size in Iraq will also be 2,500 by that same date.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller on Tuesday announced plans to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the decision fulfills President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring forces home even as Republicans and U.S. allies warn against a rash withdrawal. The new plan will accelerate troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in Trump's final days in office, despite arguments from senior military officials in favor of a slower, more methodical pullout. Trump has refused to concede his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who takes office Jan. 20, just five days after the troop withdrawals are...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fired a warning shot Monday against withdrawing more U.S. troops from Afghanistan, even as the Pentagon is preparing an order to do so. McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, warned that only a "small minority" in Congress would support a rapid drawdown and warned that a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan "would hurt our allies and delight, delight, the people who wish us harm." "The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011. ... It would be reminiscent of the...

A reprioritization of America’s strategic interests would cement the legacy of the first president in the era of great-power rivalry.n a recent memo advocating a swift U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller gave shape to the fundamental political stand of the Trump administration—realism and restraint. “We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end,” the memo read. This comes after a rapid purge in the last couple of weeks, in which President Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark...

Jim Jeffrey, the United States’ retiring Special Representative to Syria and the special envoy in the fight against the Islamic State, confirmed Thursday that he and other senior administration officials routinely misled President Donald Trump on troop levels in the Middle East. Jeffrey, speaking to Defense One, explained how despite Trump’s stated promise to withdraw America from endless Middle Eastern engagements, he was able to convince the president to commit to keeping between 200 to 400 troops in the region in 2019 to “secure” oil fields held by U.S. allies and other strategic positions. (RELATED: Trump Performs ‘Near Total Decapitation’...

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber attack occurring on 24 October 2020 which targeted an education centre in the Dasht-e-Barchi sector of Kabul, Afghanistan. The incident left at least 24 individuals dead and approximately 57 injured. Many of the victims were between the ages of 15 and 26, in addition to young children. Tariq Arian, the Interior Ministry spokesman of Afghanistan explained that the suicide bomber attempted to gain entry into the institution, “but was identified by the center’s guards after which he detonated his explosives in the alley.” One teacher remorsefully stated that, “All the students were...

New acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller has hired a senior adviser who has frequently pressed for the quick removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Defense Department confirmed on Wednesday. Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor “will be serving as a Senior Advisor to the Acting Secretary of Defense. Mr. MacGregor’s decades of military experience will be used to assist in the continued implementation of the President’s national security priorities,” a Pentagon spokesperson told The Hill. Macgregor, a frequent Fox News guest and Trump’s failed pick for U.S. ambassador to Germany, numerous times in the past year has advocated for the...

KABUL (Reuters) - The last thing 33-year-old Khatera saw were the three men on a motorcycle who attacked her just after she left her job at a police station in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, shooting at her and stabbing her with a knife in the eyes. Waking up in hospital, everything was dark. “I asked the doctors, why I can’t see anything? They told me that my eyes are still bandaged because of the wounds. But at that moment, I knew my eyes had been taken from me,” she said. She and local authorities blame the attack on Taliban militants...