Taliban

Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new president of Afghanistan on Sept. 29, taking power as NATO troops end their 13-year war without defeating the fierce Taliban insurgency

A major Taliban offensive in eastern Afghanistan over the past week has left up to 100 civilians and security personnel dead, 12 of them beheaded, officials said

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a NATO convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on Tuesday, killing three soldiers and wounding at least 13 Afghan civilians in a massive blast.

The United States and Iran have denied plans for any military coordination in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

Somalia’s government warned Sept. 6 that the country’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels were planning a wave of retaliatory attacks after it was confirmed their leader was killed earlier this week in a US air strike.
 

Taliban insurgents detonated two powerful truck bombs outside the office of Afghanistan's spy agency and a police compound in the central town of Ghazni on Sept. 4, killing 18 people and wounding around 150, the provincial governor said.
  

Pakistan’s powerful military returned to the political arena on Aug. 28, agreeing to mediate between the government and protesters who have camped out in the capital for two weeks demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over alleged voting fraud.

Afghanistan's fraud-hit election teetered on the brink of collapse Wednesday as one of the two candidates boycotted the UN-supervised vote audit set up to end a prolonged dispute over the rightful winner.
      

Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed Tuesday for the two men vying to succeed him to end their dispute over election results and save the country from further violence and economic decline.
      

A U.S. general has been shot dead in Afghanistan, becoming the highest-ranking American officer to be killed since 9/11, in an insider attack that left more than a dozen wounded including a senior German officer.