The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday announced the start of their yearly spring offensive, the outfit said in a online statement.
Pakistans top foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, said on Thursday that a four-nation group on peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan will meet this month to review the situation after the refusal of the Taliban to join the reconciliation.
The newly formed Afghan government is facing severe tests in 2016, and it must manage its difficult transition by overcoming political, economic and security challenges, the top UN official in the Asian country said here Tuesday.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah on Monday met here with visiting President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer respectively on boosting cooperation and exchanging ideas on ICRC's operation in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban has refused to take part in direct peace negotiations with the Afghan government, but diplomatic efforts are underway to start the process.
"Although women's status has been improved to some extent, there is still a long way ahead to ensure their rights and eliminate violence against women in conservative Afghan society," a women's right activist Mursal, 24, told Xinhua on Tuesday.
Afghan militancy and counter-militancy have claimed the lives of 32 people including 19 armed insurgents and 13 security personnel across the conflict-ridden country over the past 24 hours, officials confirmed Monday.
Despite the Taliban's inflexibility regarding the peace process, the war-weary Afghans are looking with optimism toward the efforts by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) to bring the militant group back to the negotiating table with the Afghan government so as to end the protracted conflict.
Pakistan's military provides weapons and training to IS militants in Afghanistan and instructs them to kill the "infidel" Afghan forces, according to the terror group's fighters who laid down their arms.
Pakistan on Thursday said it is approaching all factions of Taliban and other groups to bring them to negotiating table for the direct peace talks with the Afghan government.
The fourth round of the key Quadrilateral meeting on the Afghan peace process and drafting of a roadmap to find a political solution to the lingering security crisis was held in Kabul on Tuesday.
The fourth round of the key Quadrilateral meeting on Afghan peace process and preparing roadmap to find political solution to the lingering Afghan crisis kicked off in Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday.
The US has spent more than US$7 billion (S$9.8 billion) in the past 14 years to fight the runaway poppy production that has made Afghan opium the world's biggest brand.
Afghan conflicts have claimed the lives of 27 armed militants from both Taliban and Islamic State (IS) groups; while 11 others laid down arms in the militancy-hit country since Tuesday, officials said Wednesday.
About 34 Taliban insurgents and three Afghan army personnel have been killed during military operations on Sunday, the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The death toll from Monday's suicide bombing against a police station has risen to 20 with 29 others injured, an official said.
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