Politics of Afghanistan

About 150 people are reported to have been kidnapped after Taliban militants launched an ambush on three buses in northern Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman said they were targeting security forces travelling on the buses, adding the civilians would be released.

It comes a day after the government offered a conditional ceasefire.

KABUL: 

A suicide bomber killed at least 14 people and wounded 60 at the entrance to Kabul international airport on Sunday, officials said, as scores gathered to welcome home Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum from exile.

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.

HERAT, Afghanistan: Taliban fighters attacked Afghan bases in the western province of Farah, killing more than 30 police, officials said on Friday, as the insurgents stepped up their offensive in a region with vital opium smuggling routes into neighbouring Iran.

The Taliban on July 30 confirmed the death of their leader Mullah Omar but gave no word about who would take charge of the movement still waging a bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.

The United States is in talks with Qatar on the status of five Taliban figures who may be free to return to Afghanistan a year after their release in a US prisoner swap, the head of the CIA said May 31. 

"I want to make sure that they're not going to be allowed to return to the fight," Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan said on CBS talk show "Face the Nation."  

As of December 31, 2014, Bulgaria will terminate its participation in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in Afghanistan, BGNES news agency reports.

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

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the United States for his country's long war