In Afghanistan

The Taliban launched a multi-pronged assault early on Aug. 14 on Mazar-e-Sharif, a major city in northern Afghanistan defended by powerful former warlords.

The Afghan Taliban tightened their territorial stranglehold around Kabul on Aug. 14, as refugees from the insurgents' relentless offensive flooded the capital and U.S. Marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations from Afghanistan.

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The alert level for Afghanistan has been reassessed and raised and Romanian citizens are urged to urgently leave this state's territory and to avoid any travel to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) informs on Friday in a press release sent to AGERPRES.

Afghanistan's rapidly-advancing Taliban insurgents entered a western provincial capital, an official said on Aug. 13, hours after they captured the country's second and third largest cities in a lightning advance just weeks before America is set to end its longest war.

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Taliban took control of another city in northern Afghanistan on Aug. 11, an official said, the eighth provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in six days as U.S.-led foreign forces complete their withdrawal.

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The Taliban tightened the noose around northern Afghanistan on Aug. 8, capturing three more provincial capitals as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months.

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The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) is ready to operate the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul if the conditions are met by its interlocutors, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Aug. 7.

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Turkey has done its best for the safety and prosperity of the Afghan people, the minister said, speaking at a military ceremony.

Five civilians were killed after their vehicle was hit by a rocket in Afghanistan's central province of Wardak, Afgan officials said.

The passengers were on their way from central Daikundi province to the capital Kabul when the incident took place around the city of Maidan Shahr, local councillors Ahmad Jafari and Hajar Mirzayee said.

There is news we want to hear, and news we try to ignore. These days, Europeans are packing for their summer vacations. The news we don't want to hear is that by the time we return from well-deserved holidays, the next wave of COVID-19 will have gathered force.

More women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since the United Nations began systematically keeping count in 2009, a U.N. report said on July 26.