Afghan government

A car bomb killed at least 26 people at a gathering of Taliban and Afghan armed forces in the eastern city of Nangarhar on Saturday, an official said, as soldiers and militants celebrated an unprecedented Eid ceasefire.

KABUL -- An attack targeting a meeting of Afghanistan's top religious body on Monday left at least seven people dead and nine others wounded, according to Kabul police. Ghafor Aziz, the police chief of Kabul's 5th District, said officers were working to secure the area after the attack.

Albania's defence minister, Olta Xhacka, has offered US Defense Secretary James Mattis the option of establishing US military bases on Albanian territory, claiming that a US military presence was needed to counter Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence.

In an unexpected overture at a time of increasing bloodshed in Afghanistan, the Taliban have published an open letter expressing a desire for peace talks and calling on the "American people" and "peace-loving congressmen" to pressurise the Donald Trump administration into negotiations, The Guardian writes. 

Afghanistan is considering training and arming 20,000 civilians to defend territories where Islamic militants have been driven out, officials say, sparking fears the local forces could become another thuggish militia.   

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia of supplying weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a briefing for journalists, videos can be seen on the State Department website, he said: "Russia is really delivering weapons to the Taliban and this, of course, is a violation of international norms and a violation of UN Security Council rules.

United States President Donald Trump has committed the U.S. to an open-ended conflict in Afghanistan, reversing course from his campaign pledges and signaling he will send troops to America's longest war in "a fight to win," a move that was praised by NATO and Afghan authorities. 

President Donald Trump has said a hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan would leave a vacuum for terrorists to fill, rpeorted BBC.

He said his original instinct was to pull US forces out, but had instead decided to stay and "fight to win" - avoiding the mistakes made in Iraq.

Dozens of people were killed or wounded when as many as five suicide bombers attacked a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on June 18, officials said.

At least six people, including a police officer, were killed after ISIS gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a national television and radio station in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, government officials say.