Afghanistan

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.”

Afghanistan’s warring sides have agreed to open long-awaited peace talks in Qatar, possibly later this month, to negotiate a sustainable cease-fire and political settlement to years of conflict in Afghanistan.

[…]The decision, announced on Thursday by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, defence secretary, Mark Esper and attorney general, William Barr, targets ICC officials investigating war crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan by all sides, including the US, and will also see visa restrictions imposed on their families.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan sounded upbeat on Monday about the chances for peace talks starting between the Kabul government and the Taliban militant group but suggested further prisoner releases were needed first.