Kabul - After weeks of disagreement as to how the Afghan government would swap prisoners with the Taliban reports are now suggesting that there will be a first release of 100 Taliiban prisoners along with 20 pro-government troops.

Kabul - Afghan government representatives have met with the Taliban in Kabul for the first time to discuss a prisoner swap aimed at jump-starting a floundering peace process, officials said Wednesday.

Kabul - Afghan government representatives have met with the Taliban in Kabul for the first time to discuss a prisoner swap aimed at jump-starting a floundering peace process, officials said Wednesday.

On Friday March 27 the Afghan government of Afran Ghani announced that they had appointed a negotiating team for talks with the Taliban,. There was domestic criticism of the group as all were allies of the president Ghani.

Taliban and Afghan officials have met once again but this time by video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, they are to schedule a face-to-face meeting with the next couple of days.

Kabul - Afghanistan has ordered the release of up to 10,000 prisoners -- mostly women, juveniles and sick people -- in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials said Thursday.

Kabul - At least 25 people were killed Wednesday in an attack on a Sikh-Hindu temple in Afghanistan's capital where worshippers were offering morning prayers, the latest brutal assault claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Trump administration cut $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan on Monday. This followed an visit to the capital Kabul by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Kabul - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, a pool report said, amid an ongoing political crisis, a raging Taliban insurgency and rising coronavirus cases.

Kabul - At least two dozen Afghan security forces were killed Friday in an insider attack on their base in southern Afghanistan, officials told AFP, as fighting raged in the war-weary country while efforts to start talks with the Taliban stalled.

Kabul - The Taliban should commit to a ceasefire as a way of tackling the novel coronavirus, Afghanistan's defence minister said Thursday, while also vowing that security forces would respond to continued insurgent attacks.

On February 29 the Taliban and US signed a peace deal in Afghanistan. Since then the largest threat to the agreement is that the Ghani government has refused to follow through with a prisoner swap that was part of the agreement to build confidence.

In the recent Afghan peace deal with the Taliban the US has committed to withdrawing from Afghanistan but in stages with continued withdrawal depending upon the Taliban meeting their responsibilities under the agreement.

On Wednesday evening a volley of 18 rockets hit the Taji air base north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, The base hosts US and other foreign forces whose mission is said to be helping local forces battle radical jihadists.

Kabul - The Taliban rejected the Afghan government's attempt to resolve a spiralling crisis over the release of insurgent prisoners Wednesday, as Kabul warned it was ready to resume offensive battlefield operations.

Only a week after the US and Taliban signed an Afghan peace deal the first few hundred US troops are rotating out of the country. Although the rotation was planned before the agreement the troops will not be replaced in accordance with the deal.

Kabul - The Afghan government will gradually release 5,000 Taliban prisoners starting this week if the insurgents significantly reduce violence, President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman said early Wednesday, seeking to resolve a dispute that has delayed peace talks ...

Kabul - American forces have started pulling out of two bases in Afghanistan, a US official said Tuesday, the day peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban were due to start despite widespread violence and a political crisis.

Kabul - Rocket fire interrupted the swearing-in ceremony Monday for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, whose second-term win has been undercut by his rival's simultaneously claiming the leadership ahead of critical peace talks with the Taliban.

Kabul - Kabul was reeling Saturday after Islamic State jihadists killed 32 people and wounded dozens more, with injured survivors describing scenes of terror as gunmen opened fire in the deadliest attack to hit Afghanistan since a US-Taliban deal.