Taliban

Thirty one people were abducted from a bus hijacking last February, in Afghanistan. 19 of those were released by their captors.

These people belong to a Persian minority in Afghanistan and were abducted by the Taliban over religious differences.

Grabar Kitarovic began her visit on Sunday to Afghanistan's capital Kabul, where she met Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

"I am proud that Croatia, over these 12 years, has participated in the first combat mission of NATO, ISAF [International Security Assistance Force], and is now participating in Operation Determined Support," she said.

Spokesperson for Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE) Raluca Lunculescu said Friday that the Romanian diplomat aboard a helicopter that crashed in Pakistan earlier in the day was slightly injured; although he was rushed to a hospital in the region, he did not need hospitalisation for his injuries and it is now safely in the town of Gilgit.

Seven people were killed after an army helicopter crashed in a mountainous region in the Gilgit-Baltistan territory in northern Pakistan on Friday.

The causes of the crash remain unknown, as some sources say that the helicopter crashed during an emergency landing, while others claim it was taken down by Talibans.

Foreign fighters allied with the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL) and the Levant are training Taliban insurgents in a restive Afghan province, an official said May 8, the first such claim as the government raises the alarm over an emerging ISIL threat.

A Pakistani military helicopter crashed May 8, killing six people including the Norwegian and Philippine envoys, with the Taliban claiming they downed it as part of a plot to kill Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
 

A court in Pakistan April 30 sentenced 10 men to life imprisonment for attempting to kill Nobel-prize winning teenage activist Malala Yousafzai in 2012, officials said, though the chief suspect remains at large.

The Afghan Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive on April 22, warning it would ramp up attacks on foreign embassies and government officials as well as military targets.

"If the foreign occupiers really want to relieve themselves from this nuisance of fighting, they should immediately withdraw," the Taliban said in a statement. 

Afghanistan's president arrived in Tehran April 19 on his first trip to Iran since taking office, with security questions likely to dominate talks after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed a massive suicide bombing.

A Taliban suicide car bomb targeted a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan April 10, killing at least three civilians as security forces brace for the start of the Taliban's traditional spring offensive.