Kabul government

Senior Pentagon officials said on Sept. 29 the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August could be traced to a 2020 U.S. agreement with the Taliban that promised a complete U.S. troop withdrawal.

The top U.S. military officer called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a "strategic failure" and acknowledged to Congress that he had favored keeping several thousand troops in the country to prevent a collapse of the U.S.-supported Kabul government and a rapid takeover by the Taliban.

Afghanistan's first vice president, a former Uzbek warlord, is returning home after more than a year of living in Turkey, a Kabul government official said on July 22.

The European Union said Oct. 3 that it has struck a tentative deal with Afghanistan to take back migrants ahead of a conference in Brussels aimed at securing international financial aid for the war-ravaged nation.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Jan. 18 a small increase in the Australian troop commitment to the NATO-led force supporting the Afghan central government during a surprise visit to Kabul.

Pakistan on Jan. 11 opened four-country talks aimed at luring the Afghan Taliban back to the negotiating table with the Kabul government, even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on Dec. 25 to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited the rival nation in over a decade. 

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. 

A high-level Afghan delegation arrived in Pakistan on August 13 to discuss an action plan after Islamabad-hosted peace talks with the Taliban were suspended last month, officials said.