Afghanistan

Two Taliban attacks in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province early Monday killed at least eight Afghan security personnel and wounded multiple others, according to provincial authorities. … The militant attacks continue at a time when the Afghan government is under pressure to facilitate the start of negotiations with the Taliban as soon as possible.

The Taliban said Thursday it has already released 845 Afghan security forces under an ongoing prisoner swap with the Kabul government and is working to free the remaining 155 in line with the insurgent group’s agreement with the United States.

The United States has said its landmark deal with the Taliban has entered the “next phase” while urging the militants to reduce rising violence to allow Afghan peace talks to begin.

A US official in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that the five bases closed in Afghanistan--in compliance with the US-Taliban peace agreement--were in Helmand, Uruzgan, Paktika and Laghman provinces.

[…] Under a deal the Taliban signed with the United States in February, the insurgents agreed to stop Al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a safe haven to plot attacks. But in the months since, the Taliban have continued to work with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), the US Defense Department said in a report.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Tuesday blamed Afghan forces for firing mortar shells that struck a busy market in a southern province and killed at least 23 civilians. The Monday morning explosions came as the Taliban and the Afghan government are expected to launch much delayed peace talks aimed at ending the country’s nearly two-decade-old war.

A top Afghan official leading peacemaking efforts with the Taliban said Wednesday that he would be open to discussing formation of an interim government with the Islamist insurgent group when the two sides begin long-awaited peace negotiations.

Afghanistan’s security forces have suffered their bloodiest week so far in the 19-year-old Afghan war. The Afghanistan's National Security Council said 291 members of Afghan National and Defense Security Forces (ANDSF) were killed and 550 others wounded in multiple Taliban attacks last week.

On Taliban-Al Qaeda ties, the NATO chief said: “The Taliban has to break ties with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”