Afghanistan

Abdullah Khenjani, head of the National Resistance Front’s political office, says senior commander Hasib Panjshiri, recently killed in a Taliban ambush in northern Salang, had not left Afghanistan in the past five years.

Taliban intelligence-linked media pages on Friday released a new audio recording they attributed to dissident Taliban commander Juma Khan Fateh, claiming he discussed receiving weapons and financial support with a member of the Afghanistan Freedom Front.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Taliban recognition and legitimacy depend on meeting specific conditions, including allowing girls to return to school and women to work.

Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security says two Afghan nationals carrying 17 kilograms of cannabis were killed in an armed clash with Tajik border guards after crossing into the country.

The US Embassy in Tajikistan says travel by US government employees to border areas in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region has been temporarily banned after clashes in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan and the death of a woman in Tajikistan.

Afghan political figures, including Abdul Rashid Dostum, Salahuddin Rabbani, Atta Mohammad Noor, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Karim Khalili, and Sarwar Danish have reacted to the killing of senior NRF commander Hasib Panjshiri.

Mohammad Farid Hamidi, Afghanistan’s former attorney general, says the desecration and mistreatment of the bodies of those killed and of prisoners of war by Taliban forces is a crime against humanity.

The United Front of Afghanistan said it targeted and killed a Taliban intelligence officer in Kandahar’s fifth police district, alleging that he was involved in the detention, torture and killing of numerous former security personnel.

The National Resistance Front confirmed to Afghanistan International that senior commander Hasib Panjshiri, known as Hasib Qoway Markaz, has been killed. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed his death.

Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, has awarded its 2026 prize to Afghan women in recognition of their courage and resistance to Taliban restrictions and repression.

Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s news agency, reported that Afghan national Qaem Hosseini was executed over the 8 January 2026 protests in Isfahan in a case known as the “Alikhani Square” case.

India has donated medicines and medical supplies to a hospital in Kabul. Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi remained committed to supporting the Afghan people in health and medical care.

The Afghanistan Freedom Front confirmed that it targeted the Taliban governor’s office and a nearby security post in Faizabad, Badakhshan, with rockets on Wednesday night, claiming four Taliban members were killed and five wounded.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered government agencies to address obstacles to trade and transit with Afghanistan, stressing the strategic importance of expanding economic ties between the two countries.

A new study shows that as the Taliban has increasingly turned towards regional powers, engagement with Western countries has fallen to its lowest level since the group returned to power.

The Green Trend, led by Amrullah Saleh, former VP, said it attacked a Taliban checkpoint in Chah Ab district of Takhar province on Monday, 19 August, claiming its military wing inflicted heavy casualties on Taliban forces.

Fasihuddin Fitrat, the Taliban army chief of staff, said the Defence Ministry has decided to recruit young men from Badakhshan districts bordering Pakistan and that the recruitment process has begun.

Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has ruled that some Afghan asylum seekers may be returned to Afghanistan, depending on their individual circumstances.