Taliban

Russia has suspended transit to NATO equipment for Afghanistan via its territory, a statement by the country's Prime Minister reads.

In the words of Dmitry Medvedev, the Foreign Ministry in Russia has been tasked with informing the relevant countries and international organizations.

Three people including a foreigner working with a European Union police unit were killed when a Taliban car bomber struck a foreign convoy May 17, the latest attack of Afghanistan's fighting season.

Pakistani troops on May 15 began a "massive" offensive to try to push the Taliban from their last major stronghold in the mountainous northwestern region of North Waziristan, moving in from north and south, officials and residents said. 

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.

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.