Stories from South Asia
For five days after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban insurgency, Mariam (not her real name) didn’t leave her house. As a professional athlete, this was very unusual. However, 23-year-old Mariam is also one of the city’s up and […]
Protests marking Afghanistan’s independence day were the scenes of bloodshed on Thursday as Taliban fighters shot at demonstrators in Kabul. Eyewitnesses to the shootings in the Wazir Akbar Khan area, a diplomatic district in the Afghan capital, and Zanbaq Square said over […]
It has taken only three days to completely transform the lives of women in Kabul. The mere act of stepping out of their homes has become an almost insurmountable challenge, they told The National. Since the Taliban captured the Afghan capital on Sunday, […]
Members of the Taliban opened fire on a group of protesters on Wednesday in the provinces of Khost and Nangarhar, witnesses said. Crowds of people in the provinces attempted to hoist the Afghan flag. The Taliban have replaced the official flag of Afghanistan with the white […]
Thousands of Afghans continued to flock to Kabul’s airport on Monday, as foreign diplomats and security forces left a city overrun by the Taliban. Videos and images shown to The National by witnesses displayed scenes of chaos and suffering at a once well-run international airport. […]
video from the recently besieged Kabul was shared with me this morning, of what looks like a man falling out of an airplane. I dismissed it at first because it isn’t uncommon for exaggerated misinformation to spread in times of crisis. But […]
Sunday began with fear and trepidation for Kabul residents, giving way to scenes of panic as the Taliban entered the city, and then feelings of dread as night fell on the Afghan capital. Even though the Taliban asked their fighters to stand […]
Taliban insurgents isolated Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday with the capture of the eastern city of Jalalabad, leaving President Ashraf Ghani’s government with few options after the country’s armed forces were routed in the space of 10 days. In a special meeting at the Presidential […]
The Taliban have scored yet more battlefield victories across Afghanistan and are quickly closing in on Kabul as the country’s western-trained security forces surrender en masse after putting up little resistance. The hardliners captured Pul-i-Alam in Logar province on Friday, […]
A developing alliance in the north could be the answer to Afghanistan’s Taliban strife, security experts have told The National. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visited the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province on Wednesday to meet leaders from the country’s […]