Kunduz

Gunmen stormed a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital on June 18, lobbing at least one grenade and wounding two people, the interior ministry and witnesses said.

While the number of bombings has dropped across the country since the Taliban seized power in August, several fatal attacks have rocked the country in recent months.

Since Taliban fighters seized control of Afghanistan last year after ousting the US-backed government, the number of bombings has fallen but the jihadist and Sunni ISIL has continued with attacks -- often against Shiite targets.

Earlier this week, at least six people were killed in twin blasts that hit a boys' school in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul.

Explosions hit a Shiite mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday, leaving at least seven dead and 15 wounded.

The Taliban said on Aug. 8 they had captured the key Afghan city of Kunduz, a claim confirmed by an AFP correspondent in the vicinity, as fierce fighting raged in the center of a second northern capital.

class='cf'>

Civilian casualties of the war in Afghanistan rose to record levels for the seventh year in row in 2015, as violence spread across the country in the wake of the withdrawal of most international troops, the United Nations reported on Feb. 14.

US President Barack Obama will announce on Oct. 15 that thousands of US troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2017, the tough reality of that war-wracked nation scuppering a defining election campaign promise.

A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops during the morning rush hour on Oct. 11 in the Afghan capital, flipping an armored vehicle on its side and wounding at least three civilians. 

Taliban insurgents fighting to topple the foreign-backed Kabul government claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed a series of bombings in the city in August. 

NATO troops may need to stay in Afghanistan for a longer period and any decision should be based on the situation on the ground, Germany?s defence minister said on Oct. 8 in an implicit criticism of U.S. withdrawal plans. 

Medical charity MSF Oct. 7 demanded an international probe into a deadly US air strike on an Afghan hospital, after reports said NATO's top regional commander thought American forces broke their own rules of engagement.
 

Police and residents said Afghan government forces had regained control of most of the besieged city of Kunduz on Oct.5, and some shops in the centre of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell to Taliban fighters a week ago.