Kabul (Afghanistan)

Taliban Free 2 Westerners Working for U.N., Days After Quiet Detention

ISTANBUL — The Taliban on Friday released two Western citizens and two Afghan colleagues who had been working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, hours after the U.N. had announced that they had been held by the Taliban for several days in Afghanistan. The team members, including Andrew North, a British citizen and former BBC […]

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On Patrol: 12 Days With a Taliban Police Unit in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan — A young Taliban fighter with a pair of handcuffs dangling from his finger warily watched the stream of approaching cars as he stood in front of a set of steel barricades. Friday prayers would begin soon at the Sakhi Shah-e Mardan shrine and mosque, a holy Shiite site in central Kabul that […]

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Threatened and Beaten, Afghan Women Defy Taliban With Protests

KABUL, Afghanistan — On a raw January morning, Khujasta Elham trudged through a snowstorm to sign her name on a government register. Before the Taliban seized power in August, Ms. Elham was director of women’s programs for Afghanistan’s Civil Service Commission. But she and most other female government workers were prevented from returning to work […]

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U.S. Military Focusing on ISIS Cell Behind Attack at Kabul Airport

In October, Colin H. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that ISIS-K could be able to attack the United States sometime in 2022. “We could see ISIS-K generate that capability in somewhere between six and twelve months,” he said. The Parwan prison at Bagram and the Pul-e-Charkhi […]

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An Afghan Official Laments What Was Lost and Looks to What Lies Ahead

What most haunts Ahmad Nader Nadery about the last hours before the Taliban seized power in Kabul are the words of a police officer, exhausted after a tense night, who appealed to him to secure a peace deal. “It’s too much,” the officer said. “We need to end this.” One of Afghanistan’s top negotiators in […]

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At Every Step, Afghans Coming to America Encounter Stumbling Blocks

As many as 4,000 Afghans are moved from the camps and resettled each week, and “this is an effort that will continue,” Mr. Markell said. He acknowledged Afghans’ frustration, and said officials have tried to answer more of their questions in recent weeks. “If we were in their shoes, we’d want the same thing,” Mr. […]

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Inside the Fall of Kabul: An On-the-Ground Account

On July 15, I went to the palace to see Mohib. Above the gate tower, a giant tricolor of the republic fluttered against a clear blue sky. After passing through security, I walked across the long, deserted lawn toward the building that held the Office of the National Security Council. I waited in the council’s […]

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‘Flee’ Review: From Kabul to Copenhagen

“Home — what does it mean to you?” That’s the question that hovers over “Flee,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s piercing animated documentary about a high school friend of his who emigrated from Afghanistan to Denmark as a teenager. For reasons that become clear in the course of the film, the friend — now a grown man […]

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